Today’s episode continues our new special series “What Plants Crave from Technology.” In this new series, Dr. Sabeh will be interviewing equipment suppliers, manufacturers, and developers about the unique technological needs for growing crops indoors and greenhouses. We are continuing our conversation with last week’s guest Dan Dettmers, Application Engineer with Quest Climate.

Dan Dettmers joined Quest 4 years ago with a 20+ year background in food/pharma processing, industrial refrigeration and HVAC infrastructure design. For 15 of those years Dan moonlighted at his own hop farm, the other member of the cannabacea family. With his partners, they developed a business that covered every aspect from plant propagation to final pelletization of the hops for their brewery customers.  They even designed and built harvesting and drying equipment for others joining the industry.

Dan’s primary duty at Quest is to help the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry solve their climate control problems to increase the productivity of their farms and quality of their products. He also works in R&D developing new products for Quest, sits on several industry standard writing bodies, and provides technical training both in and outside of the company.  

Continuing the conversation, Dan Dettmers delves into the complexities of dehumidification in CEA settings. He addresses topics such as the efficiency of desiccant dehumidifiers, energy code requirements, and the dynamics of grow rooms. Dettmers also discusses the importance of equipment redundancy, the quality of reclaimed condensate, and offers advice for engineers and growers new to the industry.

Timestamp notes:

00:00:35          Why is desiccant not more prevalent?

00:03:18          What makes them [desiccant dehumidifiers] so inefficient?

00:06:20          How have you seen dehumidification technology change over the years?

00:15:27          Why is dehumidification so energy intensive?

00:20:20          Have you had to deal with supply chain issues?

00:21:39          Why does dehumidification require so much energy versus air conditioning?

00:22:18          Does it take more energy to also produce colder refrigerant temperatures?

00:23:15          What are some of the energy code requirements around dehumidification? 

00:28:04          Where does 80/60 come in?

00:33:09          What about moisture removal efficiency?

00:34:05          What do HVAC engineers not understand about CEA that you wish they did?

00:37:13          What about the dynamics of the grow room in general?

00:43:05          What is one advancement in HVAC technology that you’d like to see or that you think would have the biggest impact?

00:47:47          Can you speak to the quality of the reclaimed condensate and what it may contain?

00:51:02          What do plants crave from dehumidifiers?

00:53:45          Equipment redundancy and placement

00:56:49          Are plants high tech or low tech?

00:57:28          What has cannabis taught you?

00:58:30          What advice would you give to an engineer who is brand new in this industry?

00:58:53          What about a new grower?

01:00:38          What beer and cheese pairing would you want the most with cannabis?