Co2 burner, could it help

UpstateGarden

UpstateGarden

Active Member
Title says it all. Haven't heard much about co2 burners on here, so I wanted to have a discussion. Anyone actually use one?
 
Milky Weed

Milky Weed

Well-Known Member
Im just running a single tent, so i figured why not stick it in my room and run it at night while im in there?

If your not doing a whole room thats always an option. If the enviroment is not sealed its not worth it like Aron said
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
Milky Weed said:
Im just running a single tent, so i figured why not stick it in my room and run it at night while im in there?

If your not doing a whole room thats always an option. If the enviroment is not sealed its not worth it like Aron said
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Humans can make alot of CO2. If I have my CO2 Genny set at 1200, and I bring 4 workers in there, after a while, the Spartan will read upwards of 1800ppm, and the Genny never kicks in. We breathe out 30,000-50,000 ppms of CO2, so you can see in a sealed room that it can get concentrated pretty quick. It can also disappear just as fast. I can open the door to the room, and it will drop below atmospheric to ~300 ppm because they're eating it up as it leaves the room by having the door open. I had shut off the Genny during this little experiment. It took about 10 min for it to drop that fast.
 
xox

xox

Well-Known Member
co2 burners are nice to have there more cost effective than co2 bottles and safer than bottles in a small enclosed space co2 is not dangerous generally speaking however if you have a small room with a 100lb co2 tank that malfunctions and that tank somehow empties it can indeed displace the oxygen in the room which can cause asphyxiation and potential death. natural gas co2 burners on the other hand this wont happen since there is no tank. There are some benefits to co2 enriched rooms such as the plants being able to absorb more light, increased yield, and can take higher canopy temperatures without seeing stress. i wouldnt suggest co2 burner in a tent though. i own one of these 2 burner ones i think its the smallest they manufacture great for small rooms.


you'll also need a controller


something to note about these two i found they both worked well and were reliable since i've started using co2, my only gripe is i dont like the end on the power cord for the co2 burner i dont like how it plugs into the recepticle on the same companies controller its like the controller should have more space between the wall that its mounted to small oversight during the design it could be that the larger burners have a different type of cord not sure.
 
MidnightSun72

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
xox said:
co2 burners are nice to have there more cost effective than co2 bottles and safer than bottles in a small enclosed space co2 is not dangerous generally speaking however if you have a small room with a 100lb co2 tank that malfunctions and that tank somehow empties it can indeed displace the oxygen in the room which can cause asphyxiation and potential death. natural gas co2 burners on the other hand this wont happen since there is no tank. There are some benefits to co2 enriched rooms such as the plants being able to absorb more light, increased yield, and can take higher canopy temperatures without seeing stress. i wouldnt suggest co2 burner in a tent though. i own one of these 2 burner ones i think its the smallest they manufacture great for small rooms.


you'll also need a controller


something to note about these two i found they both worked well and were reliable since i've started using co2, my only gripe is i dont like the end on the power cord for the co2 burner i dont like how it plugs into the recepticle on the same companies controller its like the controller should have more space between the wall that its mounted to small oversight during the design it could be that the larger burners have a different type of cord not sure.
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I don't think CO2 burners are safer really.

to play devils advocate the same arguments can be made for burners. like what if the propane tank leaks and empties in the room. Or the natural gas line leaks in the room or it can set fire. Or it can burn unclean and release carbon monoxide into your room. Which is way riskier to me than the CO2 being high.

Buy good quality CO2 regulator and you won't have problems.

Also I have a Trolmaster and Pulse Pro. Both tell me when my CO2 exceeds 2000ppm in the room with a notification to my phone.

Also I vent the room for a full air exchange at the start of every dark cycle.

but both CO2 burners and tanks are very safe in general. I've never seen a problem with my tanks, or any of my buddies burners etc.
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
The generators have 2 safety backups in case the burners don’t light. .. like a thermal coupler. Mine also lets me know that it has not been on in a while… like when 4 people are in there working, they are keeping the CO2 well above what I have it set at. Also have a “overburn” relay in case you left the door open or something, and it’s just burning too long. I’ve had my 8 burner (propane) for about 3 years running solid… not gonna lie tho, it made me nervous at first :p
 
King Avitas

King Avitas

Well-Known Member
First of if I had a very large room, I would probably consider a burner. I am not trying to bash them. They have their place in horticulture.

However my little 8x8x8 room is definitely a little small for most, if not all burners. The heat would be an issue, the very limited selection of two burner CO2 generators (I have only found one by Titan so far) would be another issue.

Then there are the byproducts of burning gas of any type in an enclosed room. I do agree that natural gas and propane are clean burning gasses but to think there are zero potentially harmful byproducts from burning them is just not true.

With bottled CO² there is no heat, no emissions, you get pure clean CO² and in a small and very air-tight room it is the best if not only way to reliably supplement CO². Also like I said in my previous post, the costs are not high at all if you use welding sized bottles not the small bottles you see most growers trying to use and keep your room very air-tight.

Of course there are risks involved with adding CO². Sure the regulator on my bottle could fail and displace the oxygen but burners have regulators/valves that can fail too and fill a room with explosive gasses. Also burners if not maintained properly can burn very dirty and from what I understand a thermal coupler or extended run time monitor will not detect a dirty or malfunctioning burner if it lights up.

All that being said, I do run a sophisticated monitoring system that notifies me of high CO² levels so I feel pretty safe with my bottled CO² set up. Once again I am not trying to bash burners, they just don't work for my set up. If I had a very large room, I would definitely consider adding one.
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
King Avitas said:
First of if I had a very large room, I would probably consider a burner. I am not trying to bash them. They have their place in horticulture.

However my little 8x8x8 room is definitely a little small for most, if not all burners. The heat would be an issue, the very limited selection of two burner CO2 generators (I have only found one by Titan so far) would be another issue.

Then there are the byproducts of burning gas of any type in an enclosed room. I do agree that natural gas and propane are clean burning gasses but to think there are zero potentially harmful byproducts from burning them is just not true.

With bottled CO² there is no heat, no emissions, you get pure clean CO² and in a small and very air-tight room it is the best if not only way to reliably supplement CO². Also like I said in my previous post, the costs are not high at all if you use welding sized bottles not the small bottles you see most growers trying to use and keep your room very air-tight.

Of course there are risks involved with adding CO². Sure the regulator on my bottle could fail and displace the oxygen but burners have regulators/valves that can fail too and fill a room with explosive gasses. Also burners if not maintained properly can burn very dirty and from what I understand a thermal coupler or extended run time monitor will not detect a dirty or malfunctioning burner if it lights up.

All that being said, I do run a sophisticated monitoring system that notifies me of high CO² levels so I feel pretty safe with my bottled CO² set up. Once again I am not trying to bash burners, they just don't work for my set up. If I had a very large room, I would definitely consider adding one.
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Your saying its all down to efficiency. Isn't the math anything digger than a 10×10 qualifies for burner? Would you run a burner on a 20x20 canopy?
 
King Avitas

King Avitas

Well-Known Member
a mongo frog said:
Your saying its all down to efficiency. Isn't the math anything digger than a 10×10 qualifies for burner? Would you run a burner on a 20x20 canopy?
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Personal choice and yes efficiency. 10x10, I would still stick with bottles. But a 20x20 canopy, I would definitely consider a burner as the space would handle the heat better as well as it would be a massive room to have a 20x20 canopy when you add asiles and work area. The amount of CO² required would be substantially larger than my little set up with a 4x8 canopy in a 8x8 room. Also personally I feel that the bigger the demand for co², the better quality and more choices you are going to have when selecting a burner.
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
King Avitas said:
Of course there are risks involved with adding CO². Sure the regulator on my bottle could fail and displace the oxygen but burners have regulators/valves that can fail too and fill a room with explosive gasses. Also burners if not maintained properly can burn very dirty and from what I understand a thermal coupler or extended run time monitor will not detect a dirty or malfunctioning burner if it lights up.
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This is why I always wait for about an hour after the lights come on at noon (photocell kicks in the genny) to see if the building explodes.:D
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
King Avitas said:
In all reality there is a way to make either method work in any room. Bottles are just easiest for me.
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Understand.. but bottling a 20x30 room would be too expensive for me anyways. I have a 500 gallon propane tank that lasts me about a year. And that's connected to my residence, which has a propane water heater, stove, and back up heat for when it gets too cold for the heat pump in the house. Oklahoma can have some pretty brutal winters. The heat pump for the house works great, it's a newer unit, but below about 20 degrees, the propane kicks in..... it can hear the money burning. The CO2 genny burns less propane than my water heater by far.
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
I should also note that I have a CO monitor in the room too. It lets me know if im in any danger of passing out in there. Most of the time, the CO readings are about 2 ppm.
 
King Avitas

King Avitas

Well-Known Member
DoubleAtotheRON said:
Understand.. but bottling a 20x30 room would be too expensive for me anyways. I have a 500 gallon propane tank that lasts me about a year. And that's connected to my residence, which has a propane water heater, stove, and back up heat for when it gets too cold for the heat pump in the house. Oklahoma can have some pretty brutal winters. The heat pump for the house works great, it's a newer unit, but below about 20 degrees, the propane kicks in..... it can hear the money burning. The CO2 genny burns less propane than my water heater by far.
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Northern Canada here. My gas bills would make you puke. :D
 
DoubleAtotheRON

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
I have about 14,000 cubic feet of air space in the room (tall ceilings), and the Genny will kick on the 8 burners for about 40 min at lights on... after that, it will kick in for about 3 min every hour or so to maintain ~1200ppm.
 
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