How well do you understand temperature and relative humidity? By Harry Connor Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) is used by growers to assess how dry the air is at a given moment. If the air is too dry, photosynthesis will stop in order to protect the plant from exhaustion. Photosynthesis is the process of converting sunlight,…
Innovation plays an important role in every industry. Bulky, inefficient methods are catalysts for new-age technology. Since traditional greenhouses lack insulation, thermal masses can provide extra heat. Thermal mass materials absorb heat during the day and release the heat back into the greenhouse at night. Water barrels are widely used to maintain temperatures in…
A climate battery is a ground to air heat exchanger, which provides year-round heating and cooling of solar greenhouses and other structures using the thermal mass of the soil underground. Ceres’ patent-pending Ground to Air Heat Transfer (GAHT™) is a high-performance climate battery specialized for year-round greenhouse growers. For more on how a GAHT™…
The following is an edited excerpt from The Year-Round Solar Greenhouse. Year round greenhouses, or even those used for season extension, face the challenge of extreme temperature swings. The structure collects excessive amounts of heat during the day when the sun is out, causing them to easily overheat. However, they quickly lose this heat at…
Growing in a year-round greenhouse often means contending with heat. For most crops, photosynthesis slows when temperatures exceed 95 F. As the dog-days of summer hit, we explore the most energy-efficient ways of cooling a greenhouse. 1. Keep heat out (Shade Cloth) Best for: all climates The first is to reduce light and heat gain…
“The Phase Change Material has been up for a few weeks now and is keeping the greenhouse about 20 degrees warmer than the minimum outside temp. Without the PCM, the greenhouse was about 10 degrees warmer. As of today [Nov 17th] I am still getting lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. My Myer’s lemon…
A Ground to Air Heat Transfer system– also called Earth Tubes or a Climate Battery – is a low-cost method for heating and cooling your greenhouse year-round using only the sun and the thermal mass of the soil underground. For more info on how it works, see our GAHT page here. A GAHT system is…
Learn how to harness and store solar energy to keep your greenhouse growing through the winter for free (or next to nothing) Greenhouses can be interesting environments to grow in. This is because standard greenhouse materials like glass and plastic (“glazing”) are extremely good at letting in light and heat in, and extremely good at…
