Any experience with Ducted, Inline Ozone generators?

[Pulsar]

Recently built a new room on the downstairs level of my house. Ducted air runs from the garden up through a run of square ducting located in between the studs of my second story living room,then into the attic and out the gable vents. My air is carbon scrubbed twice(once with a standalone unit before passing through the ducted scrubber), yet I still occasionally get that skunk smell in my driveway which is unacceptable. In all my years of growing I've never been able to go completely stealth in regards to odor control.

Strains are what everyone else is running these days, GG4(for yield) and GSC Forum.

Any thoughts from those who have experience with these units is appreciated.

 

[Stay Gel^N 247]

I had one of the air tiger units. Set it inside the duct and it will mix with the air flowing through. At the end is a mostly scentless air, smells a little like ozone typically so you don't want it running into an enclosed space. It can build up to levels that are harmful and if you know the smell of ozone someone might go looking for the source.
I know that smell anywhere, great for smell coverage, I like it but it's very unique.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Ozone also oxidizes things extremely well. Be prepared to replace the exit pipe at some point, the ozone will definitely harm it.

 

[Pulsar]

The air from the garden is evacuated out the attic above the second story of my house. Not concerned with anyone identifying Ozone. I'll take that over the obvious smell of a house full of Cannabis plants coagulating in my driveway on windless, hot summer day.

 

[Pulsar]

Ozone also oxidizes things extremely well. Be prepared to replace the exit pipe at some point, the ozone will definitely harm it.

Not too worried about the exit pipe but my gable attic vent coverings are galvanized powder coated steel. Standard duct fittings are aluminum. Was going to have an aluminum flange fabricated for the inside of the attic vents, which could be replaced if necessary. That's a valid concern, though. Thanks for the heads up. I live at the beach and galvanized seems to withstand the harsh saltwater environment. I'll have to do some research on Ozone eating away at galvanized steel though because the flanges of my attic vents are installed behind stucco. Which would be a major concern if Ozone is that caustic.

 

[gorilla ganja]

I hope your ducting through the attic and not into the attic. Some major problems can occur venting directly into an attic. Ozone will take care of the smell, but is does need some time to work so try and introduce early into the venting system and make sure no leaks in the system.
Best of luck

Peace GG

 

[Pulsar]

Ozone also oxidizes things extremely well. Be prepared to replace the exit pipe at some point, the ozone will definitely harm it.

I hope your ducting through the attic and not into the attic. Some major problems can occur venting directly into an attic. Ozone will take care of the smell, but is does need some time to work so try and introduce early into the venting system and make sure no leaks in the system.
Best of luck

Peace GG

Thanks. Currently I have a run of ducting that is cable-tied against the attic vent. Exhaust is blowing out the vent into the outdoors.
I'm trying to wrap my head around your point that Ozone needs "time" to be effective and needs to be installed early on in the system though. Can you elaborate? Since in-line duct Ozone units are a stationary pass through device roughly a foot long in which air passes through at a constant speed, and only once before being evacuated, I'm failing to grasp the physics of why it would matter if the air passes through right after the last hood or right at the vent in the attic. Can you elaborate?

 

[eyes]

If your are using a high cfm fan, the air leaving the duct will exit at a high velocity. This in turn will not leave enough exposure time to neutralize the odor molecules. you either need many feet of ducting to allow exposure time or a mixing chamber that allows the air to run up against bends and turns to allow for treatment of the expelled air. The other option is to vent in the attic and treat the air up in that space. You do risk mold and mildew without venting that humid air once it is treated.

Best to have a truly sealed room with mini split a/c and co2 enrichment. Very tricky to eliminate all the smell exiting the duct even with ozone. Not to mention the ozone unit plates or electronics almost always certainly fail.

 

[Pulsar]

If your are using a high cfm fan, the air leaving the duct will exit at a high velocity. This in turn will not leave enough exposure time to neutralize the odor molecules. you either need many feet of ducting to allow exposure time or a mixing chamber that allows the air to run up against bends and turns to allow for treatment of the expelled air. The other option is to vent in the attic and treat the air up in that space. You do risk mold and mildew without venting that humid air once it is treated.

Best to have a truly sealed room with mini split a/c and co2 enrichment. Very tricky to eliminate all the smell exiting the duct even with ozone. Not to mention the ozone unit plates or electronics almost always certainly fail.

My vertical duct run behind the drywall is approx 8' into a 90 degree elbow with another run of approx 20 feet of ducting in the attic. With that in mind, according to your logic, the Ozone unit installed at the end of the attic ducting would be ideal since the air slows down further down the line? Correct me if I misunderstand. And I ran C02 via a burner with AC for about a year and a half. My room was built sealed, but I installed an intake and ditched my C02/AC unit because I couldn't justify the added electric costs comparitve to the increase in yield. I'm of the persuasion that you end up roughly breaking even without the AC/C02 gains. At least here in CA with the pricing tier that I'm in with SoCal Edison. But that's another topic.

 

[gorilla ganja]

It's been a long time since I read the science behind it, So please don't quote me.

If I remember correctly ozone is O3 a very unstable molecule. Ozone wants to get rid of the extra O atom and that's why it is such a powerful oxidant . It's does not just cover or mask the smell it it rips it apart. So you want to give it some time mixing with the grow room room air in the vent system to maximize it's use.
MMMmm, I don't know if I'm explaining it well so I pulled this from the internet to help.

"How does the ozone generator work?
When contaminants such as odors, bacteria or viruses make contact with ozone, their chemical structure is changed to less odorous compounds. As more ozone attacks the remaining compounds, the odor is eventually destroyed. This process is called oxidation. Ozone essentially reverts back to oxygen after it is used."


Peace GG

 

[Pulsar]

It's been a long time since I read the science behind it, So please don't quote me.

If I remember correctly ozone is O3 a very unstable molecule. Ozone wants to get rid of the extra O atom and that's why it is such a powerful oxidant . It's does not just cover or mask the smell it it rips it apart. So you want to give it some time mixing with the grow room room air in the vent system to maximize it's use.
MMMmm, I don't know if I'm explaining it well so I pulled this from the internet to help.

"How does the ozone generator work?
When contaminants such as odors, bacteria or viruses make contact with ozone, their chemical structure is changed to less odorous compounds. As more ozone attacks the remaining compounds, the odor is eventually destroyed. This process is called oxidation. Ozone essentially reverts back to oxygen after it is used."


Peace GG

As Eyes highlighted in the post above, (which seems to make sense) wouldn't the air earlier in the run, i.e: directly after the last hood exhaust at a faster rate than later in the run? In other words the Ozone unit would be more effective further down the line as opposed to early in the ducting?

 

[eyes]

ive run my ozone at he beggining of the duct before it terminated at the end. You said you are running 8 inch duct? so probably a 550 cfm fan or so? If you install it at the end then it doesnt really have the time for contact with the smell. 20 feet of duct isnt nearly enough of a run for exposure time. X 10 of duct maybe. Us a calculator on line and figure out velocity in your duct taking into acct the size of the duct, the cfm of the fan, the length of the duct, the bends and turns or static pressure build up.

If not into that, then just experiment. carbon filter then ozone into say attic and slow venting of treatment air with another fan on a gable end. When i ran c02 it was usually always bottle. if i ran a burner, it was a propane heater with bonus being it produced co2 as well. I understand your rates are very high out west and i see how you want to keep the cost down. Vaportek works well but at 70 a cartridge and 7 days till its spent, its costly. The you need a vendor with a steady supply of fresh cartridges or they dont work as well if there an older cartridge.

 

[gorilla ganja]

I'm just trying to say don't put it at the very end of your run or your just blowing ozone outside with your smelly air. Give it a few feet at least to mix and have time to work.

Peace GG

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

If you have a top quality carbon filter, that should work well enough alone, Can and Phat get constant good reviews here

If you use negative pressure, you should get no smell leaks. If you do not, and insist on using a large intake fan, sometimes this will overpower the exhaust and some unfiltered air will leak, making the area smell

Like others have said, O3 is not a magic wand, it needs careful setup to work right, there is an acidic discharge that can/does form in ducting, so speak to a specialist about this. O3 works best of all with a "lung room" to allow mixing, and the O3 to oxidise any smell molecules, just rushing down a duct probably wont do this properly unless it is set up my ozone ducting specialists. Most legal commercial smell busting setups use ozone, not carbon filters.

 

[Phaeton]

Coffee is bitter, sugar is sweet. Toss a sugar cube in a cup of coffee and immediately drink it. Not too good, the sugar needs time to dissolve into the coffee in order to neutralize the bitter caffeine.

Stink molecules are big, O3 is small and takes time to dissolve into the stink and break it up. If the mix leaves the duct before this has time to happen then the ozone and stink go their separate ways with their smells intact.

Time in the duct is stir time so the O3 needs introduced early for proper stirring.

 

[Pulsar]

If you have a top quality carbon filter, that should work well enough alone, Can and Phat get constant good reviews here

If you use negative pressure, you should get no smell leaks. If you do not, and insist on using a large intake fan, sometimes this will overpower the exhaust and some unfiltered air will leak, making the area smell

Like others have said, O3 is not a magic wand, it needs careful setup to work right, there is an acidic discharge that can/does form in ducting, so speak to a specialist about this. O3 works best of all with a "lung room" to allow mixing, and the O3 to oxidise any smell molecules, just rushing down a duct probably wont do this properly unless it is set up my ozone ducting specialists. Most legal commercial smell busting setups use ozone, not carbon filters.

Thank. I'm using a negative pressure intake in an otherwise completely sealed room. And I'm not familiar with a so called Lung Room but I'll be Doing some research.
Oh and I have a properly sized standalone Phresh filter in the corner of the room which scrubs the air prior to it being ducted through the first hood, which then passes through another inline carbon scrubber before exiting. Still gettin that Dank smell in the driveway on hot days especially.

 

[Pulsar]

Coffee is bitter, sugar is sweet. Toss a sugar cube in a cup of coffee and immediately drink it. Not too good, the sugar needs time to dissolve into the coffee in order to neutralize the bitter caffeine.

Stink molecules are big, O3 is small and takes time to dissolve into the stink and break it up. If the mix leaves the duct before this has time to happen then the ozone and stink go their separate ways with their smells intact.

Time in the duct is stir time so the O3 needs introduced early for proper stirring.

Again, just trying to grasp the physics of this ideology: So say a unit such as the Uvonair Corona discharge Ozone duct unit is installed directly after my last 1000W hood. The exhaust air, since it's directly after the main blower, is traveling at a higher rate of speed as opposed to the end of the run. Further, since the oznone unit is basically just a one foot circular apparatus with some C02 components inside in which the exhaust passes through, are you saying that the 03 continues to break down the smell compounds during the remaining approx 20' run of exhaust into the attic?.. i.e: "mixing time? "

 

[Andyo]

20 ft

20 ft

The 20 ft is where most of the smell destroyed,some turbulance would help.
I used my workshop loft in uk to mix ,all wood nothing disintegrated.7 yrs 25 kw lights.

In asia i used a small 03 gen with out put control in the veg room and 12/12 room
And then corona discharge o3 in the ducting

The room 03 gen would give me a sore throat ,so i switched it of 10 mins before working in there.
i must say it was very effective at killing smell.

contrary to myth it doesnt harm plants at reasonable levels .A

 

[Pulsar]

I can't remember if icmag supports videos but tomorrow I'll get a good vid of the grow and the ducting situation and perhaps you all can chime in with any tips. Appreciate the feedback thus far

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

I forgot to mention, it is widely believed that you should not pass O3 treated air through Carbon filters.. do it afterwards, "downstream"... O3 messes up carbon filters