To maintain compliance when using CO₂ enrichment in your cultivation, CO₂ sensors require semi-annual testing and calibration, as mandated by fire and life safety regulations. These calibrations ensure your sensors remain functioning and accurate, so your employees, plants and facility stay safe. In our previous post, we discuss why sensor accuracy is important to the success of your grow. Today, we will review the calibration process, and the differences between field and auto calibrating sensors.
In an enriched environment, two types of field calibration sensors are used. The first type is a fully manual calibration, done by a technician because it requires a local two point calibration. After the calibration has been completed and verified, a calibration certificate is issued for that sensor by the company performing the calibration.
The second type of field calibrating sensor uses a replaceable CO2 module that does not require a technician on site for recalibration. These replaceable modules are calibrated in a laboratory, and issued a calibration certificate by the manufacturer. These modules can be shipped directly to a facility and easily installed by a staff member with little or no downtime, and are typically handled through a sensor exchange program.
At enVgrow, we prefer to use field calibration sensors with replaceable modules because they are more accurate, don’t require deployment of a technician, and require less time to recalibrate.
Lastly, are auto calibrating sensors. They have an automatic baseline calibration (ABC) feature and do not require field calibration. Automatic calibrations cause dire consequences in enriched environments when fluctuations occur in the gas saturation levels. These fluctuations cause reading errors to quickly compound. Once the baseline ‘neutral reading’ is altered, it is extremely cumbersome to correct, and is hard to detect until a problem arises.
Due to the ABC issues, the use of auto-calibrated sensors in an enriched environment is never recommended by enVgrow or included in any of our systems. Sensors with a high chance of inaccurate readings puts employees, crops, and the facility itself at a tremendous amount of risk.
If you are not sure what type of sensors you have, or if your sensors need recalibration, we can help. Give us a call today! Your safety is our number one priority, and when it comes to sensors, we know reliable service and hardware accuracy are critical to the safe and successful operation of your facility.