Greenhouse Automation - Future Plans

Thermal Controller (under development)

The thermal controller will provide the means for a much better determination of temperatures in the growing area and will include valve and other water control device outputs in order to circulate water for thermal storage, irrigation, or misting.

Environment Manager Enhancement

The Environment Manager will be enhanced with a small touch screen to display system and greenhouse status information, allow local control of greenhouse management settings, and provide semi-automatic and manual control of automation devices.

Thermal Collector Unit

A thermal collection system is being designed to gather heat using an external solar water heating panel and use it to heat the greenhouse during the day and/or store the heat in water vessels for heating the greenhouse during conditions of overcast skies or at night.

Propane Catalytic Heating Unit

The possibility of using a propane catalytic heater to provide augment the heating facilities of the greenhouse is being investigated. This type of heater would be safe to use in a greenhouse enclosure (it does not produce any significant level of poisonous combustion products but it does require a nominal amount of ventilation) and it has the side benefit of producing both CO₂ and water, both of which (if regulated properly) are conducive to plant growth. The feasibility of this technique and the methods that may be required to manage CO₂ and water contributions to the greenhouse atmosphere remain to be determined.

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This page last revised on 05/05/2018