Nightclub CO2 distribution

[Samj56]

Title of my topic pretty much is my question.

We basically have surplus to as much co2 as we can get and my boss has put it to me to find a way of 'jetting' it onto the dancefloor, something different from a normal jet a one side or a canon.

We have a 6m circular truss and my initial idea was to have hose round the inner of this with pin holes or slightly bigger to jet it directly down, my other thought was we have three speaker clusters in the ceiling which we could have spouts shooting out from..

My questions are as follows

what are the obvious problems with what I'm suggesting?

What sort of hose is recommended for this & a supplier?

 

And does anyone fancy spending a day in ceiling tiles doing it for me :)

 

Thanks & I look forward to your responses!

[Locksmith]

First of all, I would get hold of the COSHH data sheet from your supplier and have a good read.

 

Points of interest like

Carbon Dioxide is a powerful cerebral dilator. At concentrations

between 2 and 10%, Carbon Dioxide can cause nausea,

dizziness, headache, mental confusion, increased blood

pressure and respiratory rate. Above 8% nausea and vomiting

appear. Above 10%, suffocation and death can occur within

minutes.

would beg the questions;

Do you have any way of controlling and measuring this?

Is the effect worth the effort and risk?

Wouldn't it be better to buy in professional kit which is designed and tested and comes with instructions on safe operation?

 

</twopenneth>

[Jivemaster]

The whole point of CO2 in a nightclub situation is to make jets of cold fog, not simply to increase the CO2 content of the room! Design of the jets and nozzles is important and usually the CO2 is supplied as liquid for the extreme cooling as the liquid CO2 evaporates. This needs special hoses to cope with the pressures and temperatures, but playing with CO2 gas doesn't usually create the right chilling effect.

 

http://www.sfxsupplies.com/ProductDetail.asp?idxProduct=1208 but to work these need liquid CO2 in the correct bottles.

[slipstream]

You may think you have a surplus of CO2 - my jets can go through a large tank in about 90seconds - thats 47kg of liquid CO2 per jet. You need proper hoses to withstand the -70 and 600psi involved never mind controlling it - spray the liquid onto someones head and they are looking at burns and skin grafts / eye damage.

 

At least you asked the question here, but trust me this is not something you want to do on the cheap

 

Sam

[Jamtastic3]

I work in the nightclub world and to be honest, I'm not a big fan of Co2 jets. Not because they can be dangerous, but because they can be far louder than a club's sound system!

It's especially bad when half a dozen jets are set off when a song drops. Completely ruins the drop and all you hear for 5 seconds is NASA taking off above you!

Rant over.....

[law99]

I've just gone through the process of installing 2 large co2 cannons and doing all the relevent risk assements and health and safety reviews.

 

Simply put, as stated, you need equipment specifically made for the job. Also, as its an install, I beleive its law to have a co2 detector at ground level to monitor the levels of co2 in the room and automatically shut off the system if these become too high. I know for sure for my piece of mind as much as health and safety people, we installed one. Essential you put the detector at ground level, co2 is more dense than air so will naturally have higher concentrations the lower you go.

 

How good is the ventilation in the room? If you have air-conditioning units that just circulate the air around, the co2 levels will rise very quickly. For example we have extractors and blowers which change the air around very quickly within the room, keeping co2 levels down.

 

Also, you'd be surprised how quickly you can use co2, I have 8 large bottles (99kg total weight, 49kg liquid co2 weight) empty verrrrry quickly.

 

As you said you have "surplus to as much co2 as we can get", how is this delivered, is it liquid co2 (opposed to the normal gas co2 as used for drinks systems), as only liquid co2 will give the effect required. How is it stored, cylinders that pass a safety inspection and are the responsibilty of another company (such as BOC) or a large bowser which you store onsite (your responsibilty).

 

Other things to think about, who sets the co2 off, DJ or technicians? If in the control of a DJ whats to stop them flooding the room with co2 until the dectector (if installed) stops it?

 

Just a few things to think about, its a bit more involved than just " hose round the inner of this with pin holes".

 

With all due respect, get someone with experience and knowledge in this field. If you install it, you have to provide the RA, PLI for installing etc etc... if things were to go wrong, people will be looking at you. Quite a young age for something to majorly go wrong!

 

I would start by talking to someone like Mark from Pyrotechnology (http://www.pyrotechnology.co.uk/) as I have seen his systems and been impressed.

Some manufacturers to look up are MagicFX and UniversalEffects, they manufacture the heads and hoses, also regulators and pressure release valves for the bottles / bowser and are more than happy to help and give advice.

 

Just a final word of warning, its not cheap to do this safely with the right equipment, but please do not try and 'bodge' it together, theres some extremely high pressures and even more extreme temperatures involved which put large amounts of stress on equipment... you use the wrong things, you get a bad result (seen goldeneye film at the end? where Boris gets frozen, imagine something similar as a worst case!)