Cooling a 2000 sq ft Canopy Space

[LordDiabetes]

So I have done a few medium - large setups before but this new job I was asked to be a part of is a little out of my experience so I thought I would crowd-source some ideas. Basically I am being given a portion of a warehouse to use for medical micro cultivation, by the looks of things the flowering room will be about 2000 square feet of canopy, I've been looking into gavita 1000w DE fixtures running in open hoods in a sealed room, but by my calculations I need about 80 of them which is going to get very hot. What is the best way to cool the room. There are currently five 10 ton RTU ac's, this would likely be enough btu, but it seems crazy to run ducting across an entire building for one room, normally I used minisplits but I'm going to need like 25-30 tons of cooling. I"m starting to think it may be more economical to run two flowering rooms of 1000 sq feet on alternate cycles. Any input at all would be fantastic.

 

[the rrock]

Whats your budget? Are you all in?

 

[LordDiabetes]

Whats your budget? Are you all in?

It seems like a lot, anytime I bring up how much it cost they keep telling me to go bigger, I'm meeting the investors on Sunday to get the building plans and hopefully an actual number for the budget. Also I should mention this is a small part of the overall picture, final facility is going to be around 30,000 square feet, I should also mention I'm not the one that will be installing any of the ventillation, or electrical, I'm more of a project design consultant who works with the engineers, the investors simply want an idea of the different ways we could tackle things.

I've done my homework the past few days and it seems like having multiple rooms with their own controlled environment and machines is the best way to do things in case of some unforeseen crop failure (power, water ac, root rot etc) This ensures that you don't lose an entire harvest, its also easier to service smaller units than larger ones. Im really just waiting on the blueprints to see where the pre-existing water and electrical systems are, and how best to retrofit the building.

I am still totally open to any tips or suggestions about the many issues I am likely to come across during this project. Its a big step from a 400 square foot room

 

[the rrock]

Yeah seeing the prints would help,is the current AC setup being used or is it dedicated for your growspace. I mean if you have unlimited funds,seperate rooms with dedicated rooftop units or minisplits(they are easier to relocate for future) sounds like a fun project.

 

[LordDiabetes]

So I will have to look into the use of the current ac systems, there was a massive fire in this warehouse a few months ago and a lot of existing stuff was damaged, I will hopefully know a lot more tomorrow after the investors meeting

 

[cemchris]

I've done my homework the past few days and it seems like having multiple rooms with their own controlled environment and machines is the best way to do things in case of some unforeseen crop failure (power, water ac, root rot etc) This ensures that you don't lose an entire harvest, its also easier to service smaller units than larger ones. Im really just waiting on the blueprints to see where the pre-existing water and electrical systems are, and how best to retrofit the building.

Smart move on your part. Also numerous smaller A/C is also a better choice since they will go down and service calls are never fixed in an hr. Always fun @3am on a Sunday.

Something else that works pretty good for canopy heat management is V-Flo fans for greenhouses. AC the room and rock these over the canopy. Makes it all a little more easy. Specially since you don't want fans blowing on the DE's directly.

Also get dosers. Don't even think not to. At that scale you will spend 40% plus of your time watering if you don't. Just plan on and get dosers. Period.