In greenhouse management, achieving the right environmental conditions is crucial for optimal plant growth. But managing temperature, humidity, lighting, and energy consumption can be complex and time-consuming. That’s where our Greenhouse Calculators come in!

With just a few clicks, you can analyse the energy consumption and indoor climate of your greenhouse project, fine-tuning every system for efficiency and sustainability. Whether you’re focusing on climate control, lighting, or overall energy use, our calculators provide the insights you need to design the perfect growing environment.

Optimize Your Greenhouse with Our Global Greenhouse Heating Calculator

This tool helps optimize your greenhouse by providing accurate predictions on climate control, energy consumption, and system needs.

With the Greenhouse Heating Calculator, you can:

• Climate Control & Environmental Simulation
  -Inner Climate Simulation: Analyse hourly climate data for a typical year based on local conditions.
  -Heating, Cooling & Dehumidification: Predict temperature and humidity needs, adjusting for seasonal variations.

• Energy Consumption & Efficiency
  -Energy Use Analysis: Assess consumption across heating, dehumidification, lighting, cooling, and ventilation.
  -Optimizing Energy: Balance natural and artificial systems for efficiency and sustainability.

• Lighting & Ventilation
  -Lighting Requirements: Calculate optimal lighting for healthy plant growth.
  -Ventilation Needs: Predict airflow to maintain air quality and avoid issues like excess humidity or CO2 buildup.

By simulating and predicting these factors, our Greenhouse Calculator helps you design an efficient, sustainable greenhouse tailored to your needs.

Caclulators for Better Greenhouse Climate Control

1. Cooling Calculator – Estimates cooling needed to reach your target temperature.
2. Heating Calculator – Determines heating required to maintain desired warmth.
3. Dehumidification Calculator – Calculates how much dehumidification is needed.
4. Ventilation Calculator – Figures out airflow needed for proper air exchange.

Outputs of the Greenhouse Calculators

• Greenhouse energy consumption for heating, dehumidification, cooling, lighting and ventilation on an hourly, daily, monthly and yearly basis,
• Inner climate modelling (temperature, humidity) on an hourly basis like a virtual greenhouse,
• Consumption of the primary and secondary heating system and heat load-duration curve,
• Equipment sizing,
• Comparison of the solutions (annual & monthly basis)

Inputs of the Greenhouse Calculator

GPS coordinates of the greenhouse for the weather file

• Greenhouse structure: dimensions, materials and screens
• Climate control settings: temperature and humidity during day/night time period, screens.
• Types of crop (tomato, cannabis, lettuce, strawberry…)
• Types of greenhouse (standard, semi-closed, active ventilation, closed)
• Supplemental lighting equipment
• Greenhouse energy production and storage equipment

A. Methodolgy and Reliability of Climate Calculators

B. Steps for the Greenhouse Simulation Software

Our advanced algorithms take about 5 minutes to simulate your greenhouse and generate reports.

Cooling Calculator

Estimates cooling needed to reach your target temperature.

C. Reliability of the Greenhouse Heating Calculator

Our greenhouse simulation software, Hortinergy, delivers climate and energy predictions with proven accuracy—validated within 10% through measurement campaigns by CTIFL, Astredhor, and Wageningen University (WUR) across various climates and greenhouse types.

Developed by Agrithermic in collaboration with leading research institutes, Hortinergy is trusted by over 200 users across 5 continents, including growers, designers, builders, equipment suppliers, technical centers, and universities.

Calculators for Lighting & Energy Efficiency

These calculators help optimize light levels and energy usage:

1. PV Greenhouse Calculator (Photovoltaic)

It is designed to help you estimate the performance and impact of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels integrated into a greenhouse structure.
it is a light simulation tool for photovoltaic greenhouses. It calculates solar radiation, PAR, and DLI at crop level to help balance electricity generation and crop productivity. Unlike typical PV greenhouse designs that prioritize energy output and often fail agronomically, Hortinergy PV ensures optimal light conditions for healthy plant growth while generating renewable energy efficiently.

How does a light simulator for a PV greenhouse work?

Hortinergy PV considers:

• Sun position: hourly position
• Greenhouse dimension, type, orientation…
• Structure (PV panel, frame) shade / transparency, absorption and inner/outer reflexion based on material properties
• Solar /PAR transmission of transparent cover material properties
• Shade from one chapel to another chapel according to sun position, cover…
• Crop and soil reflexion (including multi-reflexion to/from frame and transparent cover from/to canopy)
• Solar radiation /PAR going outside the greenhouse (roof, sides)

Inputs of the PV Greenhouse Calculator

• Greenhouse dimension, type, orientation, shape, symmetrical/ asymmetrical
• PV panel specification: single or double face, transparency
• Transparent cover specification

Outputs of the PV Greenhouse Calculator

• average hourly radiation / DLI reaching canopy in an Excel file
• monthly summary in a PDF report

Improve Light Accuracy in Your PV Greenhouse Design

We can provide, with Hortinergy PV Desktop, advanced calculation.
Input: any patchwork combining any types of solar panel and / or transparent cover.
Outputs: User designs a grid in the greenhouse. Software calculates solar radiation reaching canopy at any locating of the defined grid for a specific height. Output is an Excel file with hourly of solar radiation / PAR in each point of the grid.

1. Lighting Calculator

Supplemental lighting systems are increasingly used in greenhouses for high-value crops like cannabis and tomatoes. However, these systems come with high upfront costs and significant energy expenses. Choosing between HPS (High-Pressure Sodium) and LED lighting can be challenging: HPS systems are cheaper to install but consume more electricity and produce excess heat, while LEDs offer greater efficiency but require a higher initial investment.

a . Design your Supplementary Lighting Greenhouse System

Hortinergy helps you to design your supplemental lighting greenhouse system with optimal climate for any project wordwide. You will be able to define the best equipment configuration to reduce your energy cost.

Inputs of the Lighting Calculator

• LED and HPS specification: lighting intensity, efficiency…
• Regulation setpoints:
  

  • Day Light Integral (DLI) and minimum ‘’night’’  hour per day,
  • or fixed monthly calendar,
  • beyond which solar radiation, the lighting system is desactivated,

• Specification of the transparent cover of the greenhouse,
• Specification of the blackout and shading screens and their adjustment points,
• GPS position to generate a weather file.

You can also define the blackout screen and its regulation setpoints as shown below:

Hortinergy simulates your project for one year as a virtual greenhouse.

The results are:

• Solar radiation transmitted through the transparent cover and reaching the canopy,
• Supplemental lighting greenhouse required according to regulation setpoints (mol/m²/day):
  

  • Day Light Integral (DLI),
  • or fixed monthly schedule,

• Electricity consumption,
• Impact on the inner climate and energy consumption: heating, cooling, dehumidification.

The reports are:

•  a pdf document with typical days and monthly summary tables
•  an Excel file with hourly data for deeper analysis.

Solar Radiation Reaching Canopy and Supplemental Lighting Required

Hortinergy simulates on an hourly basis the solar radiation reaching canopy and the additional assimilation lighting required to reach the DLI.
The example below shows a monthly summary:

Impact on the inner climate and energy consumption

Hortinergy models the impact of supplementary lighting on the inner climate and energy consumption (heating, cooling, dehumidification, lighting and ventilation).

The example below shows the crop transpiration and a higher inner temperature when HPS assimilation lighting is switched on from to 9 to 11 AM and 4 to 9 PM to reach DLI.

Electricity consumption and expenditures

Hortinergy also shows the electricity consumption and expenditures.

Hortinergy has been developed by Agrithermic in partnership with the CTIFL (French Interprofessional Technical Centre for Fruits and Vegetables) and Astredhor (Horticultural technology institute), Agrocampus Ouest and the agricultural high school of La Cote saint André (CFPPA).

With Hortinergy, you can also design semi-closed greenhouse and compare different parameters to optimize the climate and the energy consumption of your greenhouse project. In hot and wet climate, closed greenhouse is an interesting option to obtain an optimal climate.

Hortinergy is an online software. You can choose your offer, create an account and start your project.

Documentation of the Calculators

www.hortingery.com

We Care about your Data
Your data is fully yours and we respect your privacy. We only use it to simulate your greenhouse project and never share or reuse it. It’s securely stored for 1 year, after which it is deleted. You can ask us to delete it anytime. We’re committed to your privacy and GDPR-compliant.