By Marcia Price
An Ultra-Violet Big Blue Ozone Generator will give you effective, reliable plant odor elimination in your Hydroponics indoor grow room when installed properly. How easy or hard is it to install? Have you recently installed the UV ozone generator and you still smell plant odor? What kind of maintenance is required? Or maybe you are thinking about buying a Big Blue UV Ozone Generator, but do not know the size needed to get it right. In the following paragraphs, I will cover installation tips for you to properly install and smell the results you expect to achieve. I am first going to cover a few valuable and informative tips for those of you who are still doing research before purchasing your ozone generator.
Valuable Purchasing Tips
Base the size of the Big Blue Ozone Generator (available in 4" to 12" sizes) on the number of Hydroponics plants you are growing rather than on square feet in your Hydroponics grow room. It is the plants, not the square footage, that generates odor.
It is possible to purchase a smaller unit if you are exhausting into a large attic or already have a long run of duct work. The attic and long run act as a large mixing chamber which will destroy odors more effectively. For example, if you have around 30 Hydroponics plants and are exhausting into a large attic, an 8" Big Blue Ozone may be sufficient. But for those same Hydroponics plants, if you are exhausting outdoors, a 25' duct work run would be needed to accomplish the same odor destruction. To shorten the run, purchase a larger UV ozone generator to put more ozone into the equation. More ozone must be added to make up for the shorter contact time between ozone and odor molecules.
Ozone air treatment is best accomplished with the lowest exhaust fan cfm to achieve proper garden air exchanges. The longer period of contact time the odor is exposed to the ozone, the better the odor molecules are destroyed. The slower air movement by a lower cfm exhaust fan reduces the amount of post ducting required to effectively treat the exhausted odor.
Do not worry about the diameter size of your current duct work in your grow room. Big Blue Ozone can be installed in any size, from 2" to 14", by using reducers and expanders that you can pick up at any home improvement store, and are actually a benefit when used. The expansion or contraction in your duct work creates turbulence that aids in the mixing of the ozone and odor molecules. The Big Blue's stainless steel diameter can also be adjusted to compensate for irregular exhaust dimensions at time of installation.
The Big Blue's UV ozone generator is not affected by humidity at all. UV ozone generators are used all over the world for water purification, so there is no concern about safety or electrical shorts. A Corona Discharge is the ozone generator that uses an exposed electrical arc to produce ozone and is subject to electrical shorts. In high humidity environments, it also produces a toxic acid syrup that coats the arcing surface and must be cleaned regularly to maintain optimum ozone output levels.
To squash an Old Wives Tale, ozone in your Hydroponics grow room does not remove the flavor or smell of your plants while they are growing. A living organism is continually producing new cells to replace those that expire. Saps and plant fluid are constantly regenerated, so you cannot remove the smell of a living plant, only cover it up with perfumes. Once the Hydroponics plant has been harvested and is no longer growing, ozone will remove the smell from your drying plants.
For those of you who must have some grow room square feet figures, a 12" Big Blue Ozone will effectively eliminate Hydroponics plant odor in over 1,500 square feet with ozone output of nearly 4,000 mg/hr, a 10" will cover up to 1500 square feet with ozone output of 3,000 mg/hr, an 8" with ozone output of 2,250 mg/hr around 1000 square feet, the 6" with 1,500 mg/hr no more than 8 large Hydroponics plants, and the 4" with 750 mg/hr is used for a very small garden area with a couple of large plants, or for your a/c exhaust.
Big Blue Ozone Installation Tips
Contact Time are the two most important words in installation. The longer the ozone sees the odor molecules, the better the kill rate. The example above with using a large attic or long duct run for a mixing chamber, and slower air movement with a lower cfm exhaust fan, demonstrates how it works, so I will not reiterate here.
Ozone generators must be exhausted outside of the Hydroponics grow room and living areas.
The Big Blue Ozone is designed to be installed in the duct work after the exhaust fan, as close to the light reflector as possible, which will give you more contact time before the exhausted air reaches the exhaust fan, but as far away from the grow light as convenient. Heat does not affect the UV ozone generator itself, heat only affects a Corona Discharge ozone generator. A small amount of ozone is lost from the heat of your HID grow light, however, Big Blue Ozone's multiple UV-C bulbs are the strongest available and produce enough ozone to compensate, so there is no loss of effectiveness from the heat of your grow lights, just no reason to make the UV-C bulbs work harder.
An effective, immediate test to determine if your Big Blue ozone generator is installed properly, and the length of duct work is correct, is to place a small container of stinky fish fertilizer between a small fan and the Big Blue ozone generator. With the duct work fully collapsed right up to the Big Blue Ozone, have someone smell the exhausted odor; it will stink. Slowly extend the duct work material and keep checking the exhausted smell. As the duct work gets longer, the fish smell becomes less and less. Eventually the fish fertilizer odor will disappear and be replaced by the faint, pleasant odor of ozone. You will now know that the installation of your ozone generator and duct work are correct.
If you begin to smell plant odor after running your system for awhile, you will need to increase your duct work length or increase the number of ozone generator lamps you turned on until you achieve the correct mixing, with no plant odor or slightly ozonated exhaust. Do not use more UV-C bulbs than the amount of Hydroponics plant odor being emitted
Synchronize your exhaust system with an Intermatic digital timer to run the ozone generator anytime the exhaust fan is on. If you are using light and dark growth cycles, it will save on the life of your UV-C bulbs.
The Big Blue Ozone has built-in switches, or controls, to allow you to turn the UV-C bulbs on and off based on how much odor is being produced by your Hydroponics plants. Before you actually install the ozone generator, play around with the switches so you know which switch controls which lamp, and how many lamps you are activating with each switch. NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE UV-C LAMPS ONCE ACTIVATED.
Maintenance
Maintenance of your UV ozone generator is a snap. Wipe off the UV-C bulbs at the end of each growing season. While the bulbs will last up to 24 months if run 24/7, ozone output will begin to diminish after about a year, so listen to your nose and replace the UV-C bulbs as needed for peace of mind.
The Big Blue Ozone Generator can also be used at the end of plant growing cycles to sterilize your Hydroponics grow room. Let the ozone generator run overnight in your sealed grow room. This will absolutely sterilize your Hydroponics indoor grow room. Be rid of mold spores and eggs of those nasty little pests immediately. The only way pests will re-enter your grow room is on your clothing or from contaminated cuttings and new Hydroponics plants.
When it comes right down to it, there really are not that many Installation Tips and next to no Maintenance, and that is a great thing. Installing a Big Blue Ozone is uncomplicated once you know the facts, and one of the many reasons why a Big Blue Ozone Generator is a wise decision to eliminate Hydroponics plant odor in your grow room.
Marcia Price became a specialist in Hydroponic Systems and Big Blue Ozone Generators for our environment. An indoor grow room is very eco-friendly, and removing plant odor is a must. Growing plants in water is an ecologically sound decision, with no water or space waste, ground or water contamination, or top soil erosion. Hydroponics is the future for gardening and crops. To purchase a Big Blue UV Ozone Generator, Intermatic timer, or start your own eco-friendly Hydroponic system, visit http://www.NaturesHydroponics.com.
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