Today’s episode continues our new special series “What Plants Crave from STEM.” 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. This week we are talking to Craig Burg.

Craig Burg is the Vice President of Engineering for Desert Aire LLC. He has worked for Desert Aire for 24 years designing and leading product development as well as application efforts. He currently oversees research and development, custom system engineering, product testing, manufacturing engineering, and quality.

Craig Burg discusses the unique challenges of designing HVAC systems for indoor plant environments. He covers topics such as dehumidification, equipment types, and the importance of integrated systems. Burg also addresses common issues like compressor failures and offers advice for maintaining HVAC equipment in CEA settings.

Timestamp Notes:

0:02:55 Ho did you first get started in HVAC?

00:07:45 Why was Desert Aire interested in working in CEA?

00:09:45 How did you figure out there was a large dehumidification load for indoor crops?

00:12:20 What makes indoor plant environments so different from your other equipment applications?

00:15:46 Tell us about the equipment types you manufacture and what their differences are.

00:22:35 The benefits of an integrated system

00:27:00 What is hot gas reheat?

00:29:10 What is hot gas bypass?

00:37:55 Is this equipment specialty enough that a technician would need special training or education to service it?

00:42:30 Can you speak to the seemingly endemic problem of compressor failures?

00:46:40 Getting into superheat

00:49:50 What is so special about indoor plant environments?

00:53:30 Are you seeing better specifications or questions from design engineers?

00:56:20 If there was advice you could give to growers or their service techs on maintaining their equipment, what would it be?