12

Lecture No.4
Planning and Design of green house - Planning and Design of green house: Site selection
and orientation, structural design and covering materials.

 A greenhouse, is basically the purpose of providing and maintaining a growing

environment that will result in optimum production at maximum yield.
 The agriculture in the controlled environment is possible in all the regions irrespective
of climate and weather.
 It is an enclosing structure for growing plants, greenhouse must admit the visible light
portion of solar radiation for the plant photosynthesis and, there for, must be transparent.
 At the same time, to protect the plants, a greenhouse must be ventilated or cooled during
the day because of the heat load from the radiation.
 The structure must also be heated or insulated during cold nights.
 A greenhouse acts as a barrier between the plant production areas and the external or the
general environment

Site selection and orientation

 A greenhouse is designed to withstand local wind, snow and crop loads for a specific
cropping activity.
 In this way, the structure becomes location and crop specific.
 The building site should be as level as possible to reduce the cost of grading, and the
site should be well aerated and should receive good solar radiation.
 Provision of a drainage system is always possible.
 It is also advisable to select a site with a natural windbreak.
 In regions where snow is expected, trees should be 30.5 m away in order to keep drifts
back from the greenhouses.
 To prevent shadows on the crop, trees located on the east, south, or west sides should
be at a distance of 2.5 times their height.

Structural design
 The most important function of the greenhouse structure and its covering is the
protection of the crop against hostile weather conditions (low and high temperatures,
snow, hail, rain and wind ), diseases and pests.
 It is important to develop greenhouses with a maximum intensity of natural light
inside.
 The structural parts that can cast shadows in the greenhouse should be minimized.
 The different structural designs of greenhouse based on the types of frames are
available.
 A straight side wall and an arched roof is possibly the most common shape for a
greenhouse, but the gable roof is also widely used.
 Both structures can be free standing or gutter connected with the arch roof greenhouse.
 The arch roof and hoop style greenhouses are most often constructed of galvanized
iron pipe. If tall growing crops are to be grown in a greenhouse or when benches are
used, it is best to use a straight side wall structure rather than a hoop style house, this
ensures the best operational use of the greenhouse.
 A hoop type greenhouse is suitable for low growing crops, such as lettuce, or1f3or
nursery stock which are housed throughout the winter in greenhouses located in
extremely cold regions.
 A gothic arch frame structure can be designed to provide adequate side wall height
without loss of strength to the structure (Fig.10).

 Loads in designing the greenhouse structures include the weight of the structure itself
and, if supported by the structure, loads of the equipment for the heating and
ventilation and water lines.
 Greenhouse structures should be designed to resist a 130 km/h wind velocity.
 The actual load depends on wind angle, greenhouse shape and size, and the presence or
absence of openings and wind breaks.

Fig.10. Structural designs of different greenhouse frameworks

The ultimate design of a greenhouse depends on the following aspects:

 The overall structural design and the properties of the individual structural components.
 The specific mechanical and physical properties which determine the structural
behaviour of the covering materials.
 The specific sensitivity of the crop to light and temperature to be grown in the greenhouse.
 The specific requirements relevant to the physical properties of the covering material.
 The agronomic requirements of the crop.

Covering Materials
The following factors are to be considered while selecting greenhouse covering material:
i.e. Light, Temperature, Weight, Resistant to impact, and durability to outdoor weathering and
thermal stability over wide range of temperatures .
Before selecting the covering material, two important points should bra ken into
consideration:
The purpose for which greenhouse facility is intended and service life of material.
In temperature regions where high temperatures are required, the covering material with high
light transmission and far IR absorption must be selected. Also the loss of heat by con1d4uction
should be minimum.

Sr.no. Covering material Life span

1 Glass and acryl sheet 20 years
2 Polycarbonate and fiberglass reinforced polyester sheet 5 – 12 years
3 Polyethylene 2 – 6 months
4 Polyethylene stabilized for UV rays 2 – 3 years

The ideal greenhouse selective covering material should have the following properties:
 It should transmit the visible light portion of the solar radiation which is utilized by
plants for photosynthesis.
 It should absorb the small amount of UV in the radiation and convert a portion of it to
fluoresce into visible light, useful for plants.
 It should reflect or absorb IR radiation which are not useful to plants and which causes
greenhouse interiors to overheat.
 Should be of minimum cost.
 Should have usable life of 10 to 20 years

Lecture no. 5
Materials of construction - Materials of construction for traditional and low cost
green house: Wood, G.I., aluminum, steel, R.C.C. and Glass
The following materials commonly used to build frames for greenhouse are:
(i) Wood,
(ii) Bamboo,
(iii) Steel,
(iv) Galvanized iron pipe,
(v) Aluminum and
(vi) Reinforced concrete (RCC).
(vii) Glass
The selection of above materials was based on their Specific physical properties,
requirements of design strength, life expectancy and cost of construction materials.

Wood
 Wood and bamboo are generally used for low cost poly-houses.
 In low cost poly-houses, the wood is used for making frames consisting of side posts
and columns, over which the polythene sheet is fixed.
 The commonly used woods are pine and casuarina, which are strong and less
expensive. In pipe-framed poly-houses, wooden battens can be used as end frames for
fixing the covering material.
 In tropical areas, bamboo is often used to form the gable roof of a greenhouse
structure. Wood must be painted with white colour paint to improve light conditions
 within the green house. 15
 Care should be taken to select a paint that will prevent the growth of mold.
 Wood must be treated for protection against decay.
 Chromated copper arsenate and ammonical copper arsenate are water based
preservatives that are applied to the wood that may come into contact with the soil.
 Red wood or cypress (natural decay resistance woods) can be used in desert or tropical
regions, but they are expensive.

Galvanised iron (GI), aluminum, steel and reinforced cement concrete

GI pipes, tubular steel and angle iron are generally used for side posts, columns and
purlins in greenhouse structure, as wood is becoming scarce and more expensive. In
galvanising operation, the surface of iron or steel is coated with a thin layer of zinc to
protect it against corrosion. The commonly followed processes to protect against
corrosion are:
Hot dip galvanising (hot process) process: The cleaned member is dipped in molten
zinc, which produces a skin of zinc alloy to the steel.
Electro-galvanising (cold process) process: The cleaned member is zinc plated similar
to other forms of electro-plating.
 The galvanising process makes the iron rust proof, to eliminate the problem of rusting
of structural members.
 Aluminum and hot dipped GI are comparatively maintenance free.
 In tropical areas, double dipping of steel is required, as single dip galvanising process
does not give a complete cover of even thickness to the steel.
 Aluminum and steel must be protected by painting with bitumen tar, to protect these
materials from corrosion, while these materials contact with the ground.
 Now-a-days, the greenhouse construction is of metal type, which is more permanent.
 RCC is generally limited to foundations and low walls.
 In permanent bigger greenhouses, floors and benches for growing the crops are made
of concrete.

Glass
 Glass has been traditional glazing material all over the world.
 Widely used glass for green house are: (i) Single drawn or float glass and (ii)
Hammered and tempered glass.
 Single drawn or float glass has the uniform thickness of 3 to 4 mm.
 Hammered and tempered glass has a thickness of 4 mm.
 Single drawn glass is made in the traditional way by simply pulling the molten glass
either by hand or by mechanical equipment.
 Float glass is made in modern way by allowing the molten glass to float on the molten
tin. Coating with metal oxide with a low emissivity is used for saving of energy with
adequate light transmittance.
 Hammered glass is a cast glass with one face (exterior) smooth and the other one
(interior) rough. It is designed to enhance light diffusion.
 This glass is not transparent, but translucent.
 Tempered glass is the glass, which is quickly cooled after manufacture, adopting a
procedure similar to that used for steel.
 This kind of processing gives higher impact resistance to the glass, which is gener1a6lly
caused by hail.
 Glass used as a covering material of greenhouses, is expected to be subjected to rather
severe wind loading, snow and hail loading conditions.
 The strength mainly depends on the length/width ratio of the panel and on the
thickness of the panel, but the most widely used thickness is 4 mm.
Modern material
(i) Polyvinyl chloride film (PVC films)
(ii) Tefzel T2 film
(iii) Polyvinyl chloride rigid-panel
(iv) Fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) rigid panel
(v) Acrylic and polycarbonate rigid-panel

Lecture no. 6
Irrigation Systems used in green house - Irrigation Systems used in green house:
Rules of watering, Overhead Sprinklers , Drip irrigation system and Foggers (Mist
spraying)

 A well-designed irrigation system will supply the precise amount of water needed each
day throughout the year.
 The quantity of water needed would depend on the growing area, the crop, weather
conditions, the time of year and whether the heating or ventilation system is operating.
 Water needs are also dependent on the type of soil or soil mix and the size and type of
the container or bed.
 Watering in the green house most frequently accounts for loss in crop quality.
 Though the operation appears to be the simple, proper decision should be taken on
how, when and what quantity to be given to the plants after continuous inspection and
assessment .Since under watering (less frequent) and over watering (more frequent)
will be injurious to the crops, the rules of watering should be strictly adhered to.
 Several irrigation water application systems, such as hand writing, perimeter watering,
overhead sprinklers, boom watering and drip irrigation, over sprinklers, boom watering
and drip irrigation which are currently in use.

Rules of Watering
The following are the important rules of application of irrigation.
Rule 1: Use a well drained substrate with good structure
If the root substrate is not well drained and aerated, proper watering can not be achieved.
Hence substrates with ample moisture retention along with good aeration 1a7re
indispensable for proper growth of the plants. The desired combination of coarse texture
and highly stable structure can be obtained from the formulated substrates and not from
field soil alone.
Rule 2: Water thoroughly each time
Partial watering of the substrates should be avoided; the supplied water should flow from
the bottom in case of containers, and the root zone is wetted thoroughly in case of beds.
As a rule, 10 to 15% excess of water is supplied. In general, the water requirement for soil
based substrates is at a rate of 20 l/m2 of bench, 0.3 to 0.35 litres per 16.5 cm diameter
pot.
Rule 3: Water just before initial moisture stress occurs
Since over watering reduces the aeration and root development, water should be applied
just before the plant enters the early symptoms of water stress. The foliar symptoms, such
as texture, colour and turbidity can be used to determine the moisture stress, but vary with
crops. For crops that do not show any symptoms, colour, feel and weight of the substrates
are used for assessment.

Overhead sprinklers
 While the foliage on the majority of crops should be kept dry for disease control
purposes, a few crops do tolerate wet foliage.
 These few crops can most easily and cheaply be irrigated from overhead.
 Bedding plants, azalea liners, and some green plants are crops commonly watered from
overhead.
 A pipe is installed along the middle of a bed.
 Riser pipes are installed periodically to a height well above the final height of the crop
(Fig.14).
 A total height of 0.6 m is sufficient for bedding plants flats and 1.8 m for fresh flowers.
 A nozzle is installed at the top of each riser.
 Nozzles vary from those that throw a 360° pattern continuously to types that rotate around
a 360° circle.
 Trays are sometimes placed under pots to collect water that would otherwise fall on the
ground between pots and wasted.
 Each tray is square and meets the adjacent tray.
 In this way nearly all water is intercepted.
 Each tray has a depression to accommodate the pot and is then angled upward from the pot
toward the tray perimeter.
 The trays also have drain holes, which allow drainage of excess water and store certain
quantity, which is subsequently absorbed by the substrate.

Drip Irrigation System

 Drip irrigation, often referred to as trickle irrigation, consists of laying plastic tubes of
small diameter on the surface or subsurface of the field or greenhouse beside or
beneath the plants. Water is delivered to the plants at frequent intervals through small
holes or emitters located along the tube.
 Drip irrigation systems are commonly used in combination with protected agriculture,
 as an integral and essential part of the comprehensive design. 18
 When using plastic mulches, row covers, or greenhouses, drip irrigation is the only
means of applying uniform water and fertilizer to the plants.
 Drip irrigation provides maximum control over environment variability; it assures
optimum production with minimal use of water, while conserving soil and fertilizer
nutrients; and controls water, fertilizer, labour and machinery costs.
 Drip irrigation is the best means of water conservation.
 In general, the application efficiency is 90 to 95%, compared with sprinkler at 70% and
furrow irrigation at 60 to 80%, depending on soil type, level of field and how water is
applied to the furrows.
 Drip irrigation is not only recommended for protected agriculture but also for open
field crop production, especially in arid and semi-arid regions of the world.
 One of the disadvantages of drip irrigation is the initial cost of equipment per acre,
which may be higher than other systems of irrigation.
 However, these costs must be evaluated through comparison with the expense of land
preparation and maintenance often required by surface irrigation.
 Basic equipment for irrigation consists of a pump, a main line, delivery pipes,
manifold, and drip tape laterals or emitters as shown in figure 15:

Fig.15. Diagram of drip irrigation system for greenhouse

 The head, between the pump and the pipeline network, usually consists of control
valves, couplings, filters, time clocks, fertilizer injectors, pressure regulators, flow
meters, and gauges.
 Since the water passes through very small outlets in emitters, it is an absolute necessity
that it should be screened, filtered, or both, before it is distributed in the pipe system.
 The initial field positioning and layout of a drip system is influenced by the
topography of the land and the cost of various system configurations.

Foggers and Mist Spraying

What is the difference between fog and mist?
• Fog particles are generally considered to be less than 50 microns (0.002in) in diameter.
19
• The particle size typically used in high pressure greenhouse fog systems is about 10
microns. Mist, on the other hand, is particles from 50 to 100 microns.
• As a comparison, human hair is about 0.004in diameter that equals 100 microns.
• Breaking one gallon of water into 50 micron droplets will produce about 68 billion droplets
of fog.
• Injected into the air, tiny water droplets of fog remain suspended until they are evaporated.
• The smallest particles vaporize almost instantaneously.
• The larger ones are carried by air currents, gradually becoming smaller until they are
vaporized. Mist size particles are heavier and take much longer to evaporate.
• These are more likely to fall out and wet the plant surface or saturate the growing medium.
• If they don't evaporate before nighttime, the potential for disease increases.
 20
How fog and mist work for propagation
• The humidity in the air affects the evapotranspiration rate from the leaf surfaces.
• To get good propagation, a balance between humidity and transpiration is needed to allow
water and nutrient uptake without excess dehydration.
• In a crop with a dense foliage canopy and without much air movement, a boundary layer of
moisture approaching saturation develops around the plants.
• If the growing medium is also saturated, there is a potential for problems from fungi, moss,
grey mold and fungus gnats.
• On the other hand, when the air temperature is high and leaf temperature increases, water
loss can exceed the ability of the plant to take up moisture and stress can build up within
the plant. The use of fog and mist at this time can reduce the air temperature and increase
the humidity within the plant canopy without saturating the plant medium.
• With more oxygen in the root zone, faster rooting occurs. Once the root system is
established, the relative humidity can be reduced.
• Experience is usually the best approach to determining the proper humidity level.
• Another advantage to the fog system is that foliar feeding, insecticides and fungicides can
be applied automatically with a fog system. This saves time and gives a uniform
application.

Foggers systems
• Several methods are used to produce fog.
• A typical system uses a high pressure pump, distribution piping and nozzles that break the
water stream into very fine droplets.
• Piston pumps are needed to develop the 800 to 1200 psi pressure to get the 10 to 20 micron
size droplets.
• Most systems available from irrigation equipment suppliers and labeled as fog systems
operate on 50 to 60 psi irrigation water and create a droplet size larger than 50 microns.
• They are really mist systems.
• Copper, stainless steel and re-enforced flexible hose are used for piping.
• Diameter is frequently 1/4in or 3/8in as water supply required is only 1 to 2
gallons/hour/nozzle. For propagation, lines of pipe are evenly spaced above the crop area.
• Plastic, ceramic and stainless steel are used for nozzles.
• Nozzles should have anti-drip check valves to prevent dripping after the system shuts off.
• An integral strainer will keep the nozzle from clogging.
• The greatest problem associated with fogging systems is nozzle clogging from chemical
and particulate matter.
• Calcium deposits can coat the inside of the pipe and nozzles reducing flow.
• Water treatment or the use of rain water or bottled water can solve this problem.
• Several levels of filtration of particulate matter should be installed.
• Fog can also be produced by a system using a high-speed fan with water channeled to the
tip of the blades.
• The shearing action as the water exits the blades produces a fine fog.
• The fan distributes the fog above the crop canopy.
• This system has the advantage of less clogging as no nozzles are used but some growers
have had to remove the system because of the high noise level.
• Water at household pressure, injected through a nozzle into a stream of compressed21
air will
also produce a fine fog.
• Each nozzle requires both a water and air supply.
• Different flow rates and droplet sizes can be achieved by adjusting the water and air
pressure. Distribution can be through ducts, HAF fans or nozzles evenly space over the
crop.
• For small areas, some growers have used an electrothermal aspirator with good results.
• Fog systems frequently operate with a controller or computer that measures vapor pressure
deficit (VPD).
• The difference between saturation water vapor pressure and ambient water vapor pressure
is the VPD and represents the evapotranspirational demand of the surrounding atmosphere
as well as the proximity to the dew point.
• Due to the fact that relative humidity varies with temperature, it is better to manage
propagation with VPD.
• By maintaining the VPD below one, water stress within the plant can be keep at an
acceptable level.

Other systems
(i) Hand watering
(ii) Perimeter watering

Lecture No. 7
Design criteria of green house for Cooling and Heating purposes - Design criteria of
green house for Cooling and Heating purposes: Cooling - Natural ventilation, forced
ventilation Heating- Heating system, solar heating system, Water & Rock storage.

The term greenhouse refers to a structure covered with a transparent material for the purpose
of admitting natural light for plant growth. Two or more greenhouses in one location are
referred to as a greenhouse range. A building associated with the greenhouses that is used for
storage or for operations in support of growing of plants, is referred to as a service building or
head house.

Design criteria of construction

 For locating the greenhouse, a piece of land larger than the grower’s immediate need
should be acquired.
 The ultimate size of the greenhouse range should be estimated.
 Area should then be added to this estimated figure to accommodate service buildings,
storage, access drives and a parking lot.
 The floor area of service buildings required for small firms is about 13% of the
greenhouse floor area, and it decreases with the increase in size of the firm.
 On an average, service buildings occupy 10% of the growing area.
 The service building is centrally located in a nearly square design of the firm, which
minimizes distance of movement of plants and materials.
 Doors between the service buildings and the greenhouse should be wide enough to
facilitate full use of the corridor width.
 Doors at least 3.1 m wide and 2.7 m high are common.
 It is good to have the greenhouse gutter at least 3.7 m above the floor to accommodate
 automation and thermal blanket and still leave the room for future innovations. 22

COOLING
 Natural Ventilation –

 In the tropics, the sides of greenhouse structures are often left open for natural ventilation.
Tropical greenhouse is primarily a rain shelter, a cover of polyethylene over the crop to
prevent rainfall from entering the growing area.
 This mitigates the problem of foliage diseases.
 Ventilators were located on both roof slopes adjacent to the ridge and also on both side
walls of the greenhouse.
 The ventilators on the roof as well as those on the side wall accounts, each about 17
 10% of the total roof area.
 During winter cooling phase, the south roof ventilator was opened in stages to meet
cooling needs. When greater cooling was required, the north ventilator was opened in
addition to the south ventilator.
 In summer cooling phase, the south ventilator was opened first, followed by the north
ventilator.
 As the incoming air moved across the greenhouse, it was warmed by sunlight and by
mixing with the warmer greenhouse air.
 With the increase in temperature, the incoming air becomes lighter and rises up and flows
out through the roof ventilators.
 This sets up a chimney effect (Fig. 7), which in turn draws in more air from the side
ventilators creating a continuous cycle.
 This system did not adequately cool the greenhouse.
 On hot days, the interior walls and floor were frequently injected with water to help
cooling.

Fig. 7. Chimney effect in general passive ventilation

 23
Forced Ventilation
 In forced or active ventilation, mechanical devices such as fans are used to expel the air.
 This type of ventilation can achieve uniform cooling.
 These include summer fan-and-pad and fog cooling systems and the winter convection
tube and horizontal airflow systems.
 For mechanical 18 ventilation, low pressure, medium volume propeller blade fans, both
directly connected and belt driven are used for greenhouse ventilation.
 They are placed at the end of the green house opposite to the air intake, which is normally
covered by gravity or motorized louvers.
 The fans vents, or louvers, should be motorized, with their action controlled by fan
operation. Motorized louvers prevent the wind from opening the louvers, especially when
heat is being supplied to the green house.
 Wall vents should be placed continuously across the end of the greenhouse to avoid hot
areas in the crop zone.
 Evaporative cooling in combination with the fans is called as fan-and-pad cooling system.
 The fans and pads are usually arranged on opposite walls of the greenhouse (Fig.8).
 The common types of cooling pads are made of excelsior (wood fiber), aluminum fiber,
glass fiber, plastic fiber and cross-fluted cellulose material.
 Evaporative cooling systems are especially efficient in low humidity environments.
 There is growing interest in building greenhouses combining both passive (natural) and
active (forced) systems of ventilation.
 Passive ventilation is utilized as the first stage of cooling, and the fan-pad evaporative
cooling takes over when the passive system is not providing the needed cooling.
 At this stage, the vents for natural ventilation are closed.
 When both options for cooling are designed in greenhouse construction, initial costs of
installation will be more.
 But the operational costs are minimized in the long run, since natural ventilation will, most
often meet the needed ventilation requirements.
 Fogging systems is an alternative to evaporative pad cooling.
 They depend on absolutely clean water, Free of any soluble salts, in order to prevent
plugging of the mist nozzles.
 Such cooling systems are not as common as evaporative cooling pads, but when they
become more cost competitive, they will be adopted widely.
 Fogging systems are the second stage of cooling when passive systems are inadequate.

HEATING
Heating systems
 The heating system must provide heat to the greenhouse at the same rate at which it is lost
by co0nductin, infiltration, and radiation.
 There are three popular types of heating systems for greenhouses.
 The most common and least expensive is the unit heater system.
 In this system, warm air is blown from unit heaters that have self contained fireboxes.
 These heaters consist of three functional parts.
 Fuel is combusted in a firebox to provide heat.
 The heat is initially contained in the exhaust, which rises through the inside of a se2t 4of thin
walled metal tubes on it way to the exhaust stack.
 The warm exhaust transfers heat to the cooler metal walls of the tubes.
 Much of the heat is removed from the exhaust by the time it reaches the stack through
which it leaves the greenhouse.
 A fan in the back of the unit heater draws in greenhouse air, passing it over the exterior
side of the tubes and then out from the heater to the greenhouse environment again.
 The cool air passing over hot metal tubes is warmed and the air is circulated.
 A second type of system is central heating system, which consists of a central boiler than
produces steam or hot water, plus a radiating mechanism in the greenhouse to dissipate the
heat.
 A central heating system can be more efficient than unit heaters, especially in large
greenhouse ranges.
 In this system, two or more large boilers are in a single location.
 Heat is transported in the form of hot water or steam through pipe mains to be growing
area, and several arrangements of heating pipes in greenhouse is possible (Fig. 12.1).
 The heat is exchanged from the hot water in a pipe coil located across the greenhouse or an
in-bed pipe coil located in the plant zone.
 Some greenhouses have a third pipe coil embedded in a concrete floor.
 A set of unit heaters can be used in the place of the overhead pipe coil, obtaining heat from
hot water or steam from the central boiler.
 The third type of system is radiation heating system.
 In this system, gas is burned within pipes suspended overhead in the greenhouse.
 The warm pipes supply heat to the plants. Low intensity infrared radiant heaters can save
30% or more, of fuel compared to conventional heaters.
 Several of these heaters are installed in tandem in the greenhouse.
 Lower air temperatures are possible since only the plants and root substrate are heated
directly by this mode of heating.
 The fourth possible type of system is the solar heating system, but it is still too expensive
to be a viable option.
 Solar heating systems are found in hobby greenhouses and small commercial firms.
 Both water and rock energy storage systems are used in combination with solar energy.
 The high cost of solar heating systems discourages any significant use by the greenhouse
industries.

Solar heating system

 Solar heating is often used as a partial or total alternative to fossil fuel heating systems.
 Few solar heating systems exist in greenhouses today.
 The general components of solar heating system (Fig. 12) are collector, heat storage
facility, exchange to transfer the solar derived heat to the greenhouse air, backup heater to
take over when solar heating does not suffice and set of controls.
 Various solar heat collectors are in existence, but the flat plate collector has received
greatest attention.
 This consists of a flat black plate (rigid plastic, film plastic, sheet metal, or board) for
absorbing solar energy.
 The plate is covered on the sun side by two or more transparent glass or plastic lay2e5rs and
on the backside by insulation.
 The enclosing layers serve to hold the collected heat within the collector.
 Water or air is passed through the copper tubes placed over the black plate and absorb the
entrapped heat and carry it to the storage facility.
 A greenhouse itself can be considered as a solar collector.
 Some of its collected heat is stored in the soil, plants, greenhouse frame, floor, and so on.
 The remaining heat is excessive for plant growth and is therefore vented to the outside.
 The excess vented heat could just as well be directed to a rock bed for storage and
subsequent use during a period of heating.
 Collection of heat by flat-plate collection is most efficient when the collector is positioned
perpendicular to the sun at solar noon.
 Based on the locations, the heat derived can provide 20 to 50% of the heat requirement.

Water and rock storage

 Water and rocks are the two most common materials for the storage of heat in the
greenhouse. One kg of water can hold 4.23 kJ of heat for each 1oC rise in temperature.
 Rocks can store about 0.83 kJ for each 1oC. To store equivalent amounts of heat, a rock
bed would have to be three times as large as a water tank.
 A water storage system is well adapted to a water collector and a greenhouse heating
system which consists of a pipe coil or a unit heater which contains a water coil.
 Heated water from the collector is pumped to the storage tank during the day.
 As and when heat is required, warm water is pumped form the storage tank to a hot water
or steam boiler or into the hot water coil within a unit heater.
 Although the solar heated water will be cooler than the thermostat setting on the boiler,
heat can be saved, since the temperature of this water need be raised as high as to reach the
output temperature of water or steam from the boiler.
 A temperature rise of 17oC above the ambient condition is expected during the daytime in
solar storage units.
 Each kilogram of water can supply 71.1 kJ of heat, and each kilogram of rock can
supply14.2 kJ of heat, as it cools by 17oC.

Lecture no.8
Engineering Properties - Engineering Properties of cereals, pulses and oil seed. Their
applications in PHT equipment design and operation: Physical properties: Size and
Shape (Roundness and Sphericity) Porosity, Coefficient of friction, and angle of repose,
Thermal properties: Definition of Specific heat and Thermal conductivity. Aero &
hydrodynamic properties: Definition of Terminal velocity.

PHT equipment’s design and operation

All machines should incorporate certain qualities:
1. It should perform the function for which it is designed.
2. Its work should be done cleanly, and the machine should be easily cleaned.