Is trying to achieve the perfect growing conditions for your plants becoming too much of a burden for you? Is it proving difficult to set the right climate, or you have no enough time for your grow room?
Whatever the case, you’re not alone. Managing grow rooms manually can quickly become a headache, especially once you start to expand it.
Luckily, technology has got your back. A grow room controller is a genius creation that can automate most of those tedious tasks for you.
So in this post, we’ll discuss exactly how a grow room controller can automate your grow room. How does it all work? What options do you have amongst different types of devices? Are they even worth it? Read on to find out.
What’s A Grow Room Controller?
If you want to step things up a notch, a grow room controller is what you need. It’s a nifty little device that controls different environmental factors of your grow house, such as temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, etc. You can use a grow room sensor also alongwith grow room controller. The sensor will notify you of on your phone of any changes in the humidity, moisture, or temperature in the growing area.
A lot of devices also control the lights and switch them on and off for you, and some even automate irrigation. How cool is that?
Unlike a simple timer, grow room controllers sense changes in the environment and manage the climate control devices accordingly. Its multiple sensors will detect, for example, a change in temperature and automatically turn on the AC to cool the grow house till it reaches the temperature you set.
All you have to do is plug in your climate control devices, such as the AC or the dehumidifier, to your grow room controller.
Next, you’ll have to set the settings on the controller according to your plant’s needs. The rest your grow room controller will handle. Some devices will also control multiple factors at a time while you can chill inside your home without worrying about your plants.
Types Of A Grow Room Controller
Every grow house has different automation needs. You may want to automate temperature and humidity but prefer to irrigate your plants yourself. Or, if you’re going away and don’t want to put yourself under a ‘house arrest,’ a fully automated grow room might be what you need.
Either way, there’s an option for you with the different types of controllers available:
Single Purpose Controllers
These controllers detect a change in the targeted factor and activate your grow room’s climate control device to reach the required setting.
If there’s something you particularly struggle with, for instance, achieving the right temperature for your grow room, a single purpose controller is what you need. It will activate the air conditioner or heater in your grow room till it comes back to the desired temperature.
There are several types of single-purpose environment controllers for controlling different climatic factors of a grow house:
1. Humidity Controllers
Tired of measuring humidity levels and turning your humidifier and dehumidifier on and off? A humidity controller can do that for you. Simply set the desired level of humidity, and the controller will detect changes and turn on the devices accordingly.
Most of the time, you can connect a humidifier and dehumidifier, both at the same time, to one controller for efficient operation.
2. Temperature Controllers
A simple device that connects to your heating and cooling devices, such a controller automatically adjusts your grow room temperature.
It measures the temperature accurately, and if things start to heat or cool down, it’ll bring the room temperature to the limit you set.
3. CO2 Controller
While it’s possible to automate CO2 levels with a timer and a CO2 tank, the method proves to be inaccurate most of the time. Since most crops, especially cannabis crops, are sensitive to such changes, a CO2 controller is best for this job.
It connects to a CO2 tank and has a probe that measures CO2 levels in the air. So if ventilation causes CO2 to drop, the controller can detect it and trigger the tank to release more gas.
4. Light Controller
One of the most important factors, the lights, can be automatically turned on and off with a controller.
But these aren’t just timers – some of them also adjust the LED spectrum according to the growth stage of plants.
Most of the time, you have to connect these devices to a breaker where all of your lights are attached. Next, set the lighting schedule on the controller, and you’re good to go.
Among all light controllers on the market to automate your indoor gardening, Spider Farmer LED grow a light controller is a go-to option for commercial and batch growing.
5. pH Controller
pH control is very important, especially in hydroponics, which is why a pH controller can prove handy. It monitors and adjusts the pH level in reservoirs of various sizes.
Multipurpose Controllers
We’ve talked about how you can automate different tasks. But if you want to automate most of the tasks in your grow room without buying different controllers for each task, a multipurpose controller is the answer.
This crop-saving device is a multifunctional piece of equipment that connects to different climate control devices at a time. It has sensors or probes that accurately measure the climatic factors inside a grow room.
With that data, it can manage humidifying, dehumidifying, CO2 release, temperature adjustments, and light. Some can even regulate feeding pumps and balance the pH.
However, it might be difficult for small scale farmers to buy a system that handles irrigation schedules and water amounts. But apart from that, a quality grow room controller will be able to handle all the other tasks without you having to do anything other than setting the requirements.
And since most of these controllers are WiFi enabled, you can remotely access your grow room and change the settings. Just a few clicks on your smartphone will trigger the controller to change the environment accordingly. Smart, isn’t it?
Grow Room Controllers – Final Words
It all must sound really cool – automating every aspect of your grow house to maintain the delicate balance of things. However, it can often prove slightly difficult to learn how to use advanced controllers, such as the multipurpose ones.
But with time, you’ll get used to all the jargons and complicated settings.
The result? You’ll have less to worry about and get higher yields with crops that are better in quality. And with the advancement of technology, these devices aren’t too expensive either and are readily available to small scale growers.
So if you’re serious about growing high-quality crops and aren’t able to handle every environmental aspect on your own, a grow room controller will prove to be a great relief.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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