Anyone ever used dry ice?

[Frankster]

Dry Ice p basically Solid CO2, and my plants are in a small closet during this heat wave. Sometimes the heat gets up to 90+ degrees in the cabnet and its hard to cool things down, using the dry ice sometimes during the heat of the day will do several things in addition to cooling down the inside of my grow area, its also has the added benifit of pumping carbon dioxide into the area, so the added heat will be better tolerated and ultilized. Anyone see a downsides to using this method? Besides the obvious problem of cost, I figure I can do this only when its extremely hot and warranted under the circumstances. Thoughts anyone?

:MoreNutes

 

[sully508]

I also thought of dry ice but the price was insane.at this time. I run a propane torch. propane is cheap. I wish I could afford a propane fed co2 generator. maybe next year.
cost. and it sounds you'll only be using it when warranted. that means not a consistent supply. I would try to use a different method. co2 in a bag possibly.co2 generator, tanks, etc. that's just my opinion. I need a consistent supply. how long does dry ice last?
good luck

 

[Frankster]

actually, the price is very reasonable after doing some calculations. I get dry ice for about $1 per pound. one pound of dry ice makes 270 liters of CO2. CO2 is only about 0.0314% of the air we breathe. So if you can fill the grow area with say 1% CO2, that will drastically increase your growth potential. (I made good grades in biochem during college). Anyhow, my grow area has been getting too hot, above 90f which is enough to slow/stop growth. Also, there are ventilation issues, since it's a small closet and such. Having the high CO2 concentrations kill 2 birds with one stone. I'm able to keep the closet shut, since it now has a self contained CO2 source. Also, the plants are able to take advantage of the higher temps inside the closet, since higher concentrations of CO2 benefit from higher ambient air temperture. I'm seeing noticible growth daily since starting this technique. I'll keep updating this thread and try to get some pics up.

 

[Rodrigo]

The problem with dry ice is that it starts to sublimate immediately after manufacturing so you can't store it or keep it from turning back into a gas. So you'd have to buy some everyday.
$1 per pound sound reasonable and if you use only the one pound per day the a cost of $30 a month is acceptable. However it doesn't last for long so if you're suffering from a heatwave then it will only cool your closet for a short period of time (even if it works at all).

Overall I think you won't be able to cool it that way. You need to consider that you should have air moving around and fresh air coming in and stale are pushed out, so I'd try to get an AC unit and cool the room where the closet is.