I am not a professional, but I have fire and safety questions relating to my hydroponic setup I need advice on. I apologize if this is an inappropriate place to ask the question, but cannot find another forum that accepts posts from the public. Thus, I can find no PROFESSIONAL advice on this topic.
I am in Calgary, Alberta. Since retiring I have taken up a hobby I used to have in my undeveloped basement 25 years ago—growing hot peppers hydroponically. This time around I have a 4x4 Grow Tent in an insulated and attached garage. I don't want to run my overhead forced gas heater 24/7 due to the cost, so I have a small (700W) oil filled heater in the tent (~140 ft^3). I chose oil filled because it is reported to be the safest and most efficient for grow tents. I am in the process of insulating the outside of the tent with rigid insulation as well because Calgary can easily get to -30C in the winter. This is just an experiment for the winter months. I'm told others have done this successfully, but we will see. I may eventually add a fish tank heater to the nutrient reservoir if needed. Obviously, there are other electrical devices in the tent such as an LED light panel, fans, nutrient pump, air bubbler, peristaltic pump for acid, etc.
What I want to do is have a smoke detector in the tent for safety purposes. But it would need to operate remotely and send an alarm to either a smartphone or other device in the event of a fire. Yet I cannot find any device like this—with the exception of some higher end devices like Nest/Google products. The problem is most of these also monitor CO2 and CO, which won't work because hydroponic growers often add either CO2 gas, or what are called "Exhale C02 Bags" (fungal mycelia) to create a C02-rich environment for the pepper plants to flourish.
Is there an inexpensive commercial product that will do this? Maybe the solution is to use those First Alert type consumer type detectors that when one goes off, all the others do as well—and just put another detector inside the home. Not sure if I can find one that is just smoke though, and not CO2 + CO. Nowadays they seem to all detect every gas from CO2/CO to Radon etc.
Any suggestions welcome. Thanks guys.
P.S. Tried to attach an image of my setup but suspect it is not permitted for new users.
- Pete