NCIA’s #IndustryEssentials webinar series is our premier digital educational series featuring a variety of interactive programs allowing us to provide you timely, engaging and essential education when you need it most.

Members of NCIA’s Facilities Design Committee have convened a panel of leading cultivation and energy design specialists, quality assurance experts, and engineering thought leaders to discuss optimizing HVACD systems to improve energy efficiency as well as the concept of Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD).

Indoor cannabis cultivation facilities are complex environments, where a large number of variables interact to create an ideal ecosystem to grow cannabis. The upside of an indoor facility is it allows a year-long growing climate, optimized for each stage of the plant grow cycle. The downside, however, is creating this ideal climate is very energy-intensive.

As indoor cultivation facilities increase, they can be a source of strain on electrical grids. A recent study showed indoor cannabis cultivation alone accounted for 4% of the energy grid usage in Denver. With that context, any areas we can identify to improve energy efficiencies without introducing a negative impact to the grow environment can have enormous bottom-line impacts for cultivation owners and society at large.

In this program we’ll explore and define what VPD is as well as why growers want to lower VPD early in plant maturity, and increase to higher VPDs, and thus high transpiration, at the flowering stage before harvesting.

Learning Objectives

• What is VPD
• How does VPD affect transpiration and more importantly plant growth
• How is VPD calculated
• How is a psychometric chart related to VPD
• What should we consider when evaluating dehumidification systems?
• Can we re-harvest water transpired by the plants for re-use in the irrigation process?
• Can we potentially reduce upfront equipment as well as operating costs?
• What cost reduction potentials look like.

Panelists

Kevin Quinlan – Mintropy
Adrian Giovenco – InSpire Advanced Transpiration Solutions
Mariah Peake – Ebee Management Group
Chris Uhlig – Ceres Greenhouse Solutions