Before You Break Ground: Greenhouse Simulation with Real Climate Data
Greenhouse performance depends on how glazing, HVAC, shading, and ventilation interact—not just how each performs in isolation. In this session, Ceres Head of Engineering Robert Fisher shows how dynamic building performance simulation (via IESVE) models a greenhouse’s behavior hour-by-hour across a full year of site-specific climate data, capturing solar gain, crop transpiration, and equipment control as one connected system.
Robert demonstrates this with a live side-by-side comparison of an ETFE-glazed greenhouse and an identical insulated metal panel building, highlighting differences in solar gain, condensation risk, and coil performance under the same climate conditions, plus CFD airflow examples showing how design changes affect crop-zone circulation. The takeaway: simulation catches costly design risks before construction, when changes are still cheap to make.
📘 Go deeper with our free Greenhouse Energy Modeling Guide: https://ceresgs.com/greenhouse-energy-modeling-lp/
