Cooling Capacity Assessment of Semi-closed Greenhouses
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Date
2011-05-02
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Abstract
Energy and labor are the two largest expenditures of greenhouse operations. High energy cost and large CO2 footprint associated with greenhouse heating have motivated research activities in the areas of energy conservation and alternative energy. Dutch researchers have demonstrated energy saving potential of closed greenhouse operation in the Netherlands. This study hypothesized that semi-closed operation was better suited for Ohio and other US northern climate regions. A decision support tool has been developed to assess energy recovery potential and other benefits of semi-closed operations. The results showed that a greenhouse can be closed 90% of the time using only 50% of the maximum cooling capacity required to keep a greenhouse closed 100% of the time. Also, heat recovered from cooling operations of a closed greenhouse in Ohio can contribute 23-98% of total annual heating needs. This study also found large disagreement when using a commonly used tool for heat loss calculation. The tool performed poorly with a 30% error under nighttime clear sky conditions. The evaluation suggested that accurate estimation of net solar radiation transmittance is important, e.g. a 5% change of the transmittance caused a 9% prediction performance shift. In addition to the originally designed functions, the decision support tool is extended to predict the performance of external shade curtains for cooling purposes. The development of this tool has established a solid foundation for the evaluation of greenhouse energy management strategies, including feasibility studies of alternative energy sources, and of sizing of greenhouse heating and cooling equipments.
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heat storage, heat recovery, decision support tool, benefits of closed greenhouse, northern climate, net solar radiation, growing season extension, CO2, greenhouses, cooling systems