Grow Room Dehumidifier Yields Better Greens for Farmer

Overview

Green Sense Farms an indoor grower of greens, culinary herbs and lettuces realized the conventional grow room air conditioning units and portable dehumidifiers they were using weren't giving them the environmental control they needed.

Green Sense Farms contacted Desert Aire to discuss their grow room dehumidification needs. They chose Desert Aire because of its reputation as an expert in grow room dehumidification.

Grow Room Dehumidifier Project Requirements & Needs

 

The right grow room dehumidifier was required to create favorable growing environments within enclosed spaces where temperatures and relative humidity needed to be tightly controlled.

Better control of these variables would help Green Sense Farms provide more favorable growing conditions. This would enable Green Sense Farms to provide better produce to the grocery stores and restaurants they served.

Grow Room Dehumidification Solutions Delivered

 

After a review of historical data and design setpoints, Green Sense Farms and Desert Aire specified VerticalAire-based dehumidification systems to control the environments of two indoor grow rooms totaling approximately 20,000 sq ft. Desert Aire engineers and service personnel were on-site at commissioning and start-up to ensure the VerticalAire-based systems were installed according to plan.

Desert Aire engineers worked on-site with Green Sense Farms to fine-tune the VerticalAire systems and adjust design setpoints. The dehumidification system and design setpoints were adjusted based on the daily cycles within the spaces that housed vertical growing towers.

Desert Aire engineers also trained Green Sense Farms' facility personnel on the operation and maintenance of the grow room dehumidifier systems.

Although grow room humidity control is set and read in terms of relative humidity, the dehumidification systems constantly convert the setpoint and sensor values internally to dewpoints. Since dewpoints are direct measurements of total moisture contents in the air, dewpoints provide more stable values and are more representative of the required changes in operating modes or stages of the VerticalAire systems. Dewpoints also reflect the true operational conditions Green Sense Farms desired.

Green Sense Farms uses a building management system that allows facility managers to interact with the VerticalAire systems and monitor conditions and trends within the grow rooms. The BMS allows managers to monitor conditions from on-site and off-site locations.

Robert Colangelo, founding farmer & CEO of Green Sense Farms said, Through the Desert Aire system we control temperature and humidity and give the plants the perfect conditions they need to grow all year round. Desert Aire is fantastic at being able to size the equipment per the job and to be able to troubleshoot problems as they occur, and to help provide solutions for ongoing maintenance.”

Green Sense Farms did a chemical analysis to evaluate the nutritional value of produce grown at Green Sense Farms. The results showed that its plants provided the same or better nutritional values when compared to greenhouse or field grown produce.

The success of the Green Sense Farms application and similar grow room dehumidification applications contributed to Desert Aire reconfiguring its VerticalAire systems into a new product line, the GrowAire™ series.

The GrowAire™ series is specifically developed for indoor farming and grow room dehumidification and environmental control.

Contact Desert Aire today to discuss your grow room dehumidification needs; we'll respond shortly!

More grow room application information:

Application Note 25: Grow Room Load Determination

Application Note 26: Grow Room Environmental Control 

Application Note 27: HVAC Systems and Grow Room Energy Usage 

Application Note 28: Vapor Pressure Deficit and HVAC System Design