Cannabis is very sensitive crop. The design of cannabis greenhouse is very technical. Many equipment are therefore required to control the inner climate: lighting, dehumidification, cooling, heating, blackout screen… Investment and energy consumption are very high.
1. Design you cannabis greenhouse with Hortinergy
Hortinergy helps you to design an energy efficient greenhouse with an optimal climate. You will be able to define the best equipment configuration to reduce your energy cost.
You can easily design on-line your cannabis greenhouse project all over the world
- Enter the input parameters: greenhouse dimensions, screens, equipment and climate settings,
- Hortinergy models the inner climate,
- Hortinergy simulates energy consumption.
You can assess the impact of many parameters and compare scenarios:
- Climate settings,
- Assimilation lighting system,
- Heating consumption,
- Cooling system in dry climate with a semi-closed greenhouse or pad & fan,
- Cooling and dehumidification system in wet climate with a closed greenhouse,
- Type of screens: thermal, shade, black-out…
2. Climate settings and modelling in a cannabis greenhouse
In a cannabis greenhouse, you want to control temperature, humidity, solar radiation and air velocity. Hortinergy implements these climate settings parameters:
For example, you can fill the temperature and humidity setpoints
Then Hortinergy simulates the inner climate on hourly basis during a typical year.
Hortinergy models the transpiration of cannabis considering crop development and inner climate: temperature, humidity, solar radiation, assimilation lighting, air velocity…
We show as example a glass greenhouse
- located in Ontario, Canada,
- roof: clear glass cover, black out screen and thermal screen,
- side walls: opaque,
- assimilation lighting,
- cooling and dehumidification system.
We show the inner climate during an average day in May. Temperatures are in degree Celsius.
3. Assimilation light design in a cannabis greenhouse
You can design the assimilation lighting system of your greenhouse.
Hortinergy models:
- HPS and LED assimilation lighting,
- Solar radiation transmitted by the transparent cover and reaching canopy,
- Assimilation lighting required according to regulation setpoints:
- Day Light Integral (DLI),
- or fixed monthly schedule,
- Electricity consumption,
- Impact on the inner climate and energy consumption:
- sensible heat generated by light,
- latent heat (evapotranspiration) generated by crop due to light.
Calculation are performed on hourly basis during a typical year.
You will estimate your electricity consumption by taking into account the different parameters of your assimilation lighting system.
Then Hortinergy simulates the solar radiation reaching canopy and the additional assimilation lighting required.
Hortinergy shows also the electricity consumption and expenditure.
4. Heating system and energy consumption in a cannabis greenhouse design
Hortinergy simulates the energy consumption of the greenhouse. Outputs are hourly heating demand as well as monthly summary of energy consumption.
hourly heating demand
monthly summary of energy consumption5. Closed greenhouse
Hortinergy models latent (dehumidification) and sensible cooling demand in a closed greenhouse.
Results are a table with monthly summary and an Excel file with hourly data.
6. Semi closed greenhouse
Hortinergy simulates also semi-closed greenhouse. The model includes air tubes, fan specification, air re-circulation rates, pad and fan… The schema below shows the modelling principle.
The outputs are
- Inner climate including external air-flow and water consumption as shown above
- Heating required as presentedabove
- Electricity and water consumption: a table with monthly summary and an Excel file with hourly data.
In conclusion, Hortinergy is friendly on-line software to design energy efficient cannabis greenhouse with an optimal climate all over the world. You can simulate and compare for example:
- Semi-closed and closed greenhouse,
- Assimilation lighting system,
- Heating consumption