Promotions
CareersThe booming cannabis industry has attracted a huge amount of interest from entrepreneurs, and it’s easy to see why. If you aspire to own a large-scale marijuana cultivation facility, or in fact, any type of cannabis cultivation operation, chances are you are eager to chart a clear project timeline and get started right away so you shall be able to set permits in place and hasten that first crop or flower harvest to completion. Building a grow facility isn’t an overnight endeavor, though. It mirrors more of a careful, intricately planned operation that has to consider all aspects including costs, environment, and potential pests.
The project stretches across several important stages, which include electrical, plumbing, irrigation, ventilation, lighting, and security systems design and installation. These stages require professional skills and specialized equipment. However, when you factor in considerations such as climate, space and area, which are all imperative to grow a healthy crop, you’ll realize that you have to do your research, understand the licensing requirements and take the timeframe seriously to make sure you’ve got every detail right. Your patience, meshed with others’ skills and experience, will pay off. A well-planned indoor grow operation can deliver incredible rewards.
For advice on commercial HVAC for grow facilities, bring in your design and permits, and call us.
Why Grow Marijuana Indoors?
If you want your grow facility to yield year-round profits, it makes financial sense to grow indoors. An increasing number of growers, both seasoned adults and beginners, are moving indoors because it offers so many benefits, some even likening it to stages in a complex project. This way, you are able to control and manage the environment and all its factors, resigning the climate to be merely a variable beyond your cannabis cultivation operation.
You can harvest anytime you want. Growing outdoors means being dependent on the sun and only being able to harvest twice a year. The indoor cultivation also permits the crucial control over lighting and irrigation systems, making you less dependent on external weather conditions.
You’ll be able to grow plants in rotation. By having different rooms with plants that are ready to be harvested at different times, you can cut the time down between harvests to as little as one week, and make full use of your equipment and resources.
Setting Up a Commercial Grow Room
Be prepared to do a lot of problem-solving when you are first entering this market, just like way any pioneer in a new area would. Professional marijuana cultivation is a new field that is exciting precisely because everyone is new to it. Each day will bring new challenges with pests, costs and others, along with new rewards, in the faced-paced timeline of your project.
From setting up LED and BTU lights to your blueprints, countless adjustments will need to be made. You’ll need to find the right location, build the structure to your specifications, and install the electrical wiring and sophisticated ventilation. You’ll also need to make sure you’re fully knowledgeable about the regulations in your city and state, ensuring licensing and security requirements are met.
For Large Scale Grow Rooms
Large scale grow rooms will require many different HVAC units to control the temperature, the humidity, and the flow of air in multiple different rooms. Setting this up will be a costly and time-consuming process, but it’s one that is worth doing right. Like planning the timeline of a major project, every stage needs careful consideration for its successful completion.
So How Long Does It Take to Build a Marijuana Grow Facility?
Because of the complexities involved in the process, it’s impossible to say exactly how long it would take to build a grow facility. However, the facility that we recently provided HVAC support for took between 6 and 8 months for the HVAC installation alone.
Every day was a challenge because the market is new; there isn’t a template yet for how to best construct a marijuana grow facility. Many of the pioneers in the industry understand what the plants require, but putting it into construction is another story. A contractor can get blueprints and follow them, but being on the job and actually implementing best practices is another story altogether.
For example, no one knew the specifics of proper LED light installation. We had an engineer make a calculation per the necessary CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute) and BTU (British Thermal Unit). Then, we calculated the necessary air conditioner per the calculations, and it worked. However, no one had experience for this kind of job in the state of Nevada, so we had to work by, “Let’s just do it.”
Will I Need a Grow Room HVAC System?
Having the right HVAC system is essential if you want your operation to be a success. The lights that are used to grow marijuana put off intense heat, so you’ll need to compensate for that heat while also ensuring that there is adequate airflow. Your HVAC system will allow you to control the temperature and the humidity. It also creates air that keeps the plants moving, which helps them to grow.
What to Look for in an HVAC Contractor
When you are ready to choose an HVAC contractor, the most important factor in your decision will be reliability. If temperatures in your grow room go above 80 degrees, you can lose your whole crop—along with hundreds of thousands of dollars. The owner of a marijuana grow operation can’t afford to wait until normal business hours to call in a pro. Make sure you work with an HVAC contractor who has 24-hour availability and understands how crucial this is to your livelihood.
Start planning today, and you could have a successful indoor marijuana cultivation business sooner than you think. Consider the stages, timeline of your venture, necessary permits, and completion goals, and take your time and invest in getting every detail just right. More states are legalizing marijuana each year. With so much interest, this stands to become a very competitive industry, and the entrepreneurs who end up on top will be the ones who did just that.
