Jafar Massah; Hassan Tahmasebi; Mahmoud Reza Roozban; Behzad Azadegan
Abstract
The use of methods to reduce energy consumption in greenhouses such as reduced heat losses, and improved efficiency of heating, cooling, and irrigation systems cancut energy consumption for the production of any crop to several times. The present research has designed and built an automated system ...
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The use of methods to reduce energy consumption in greenhouses such as reduced heat losses, and improved efficiency of heating, cooling, and irrigation systems cancut energy consumption for the production of any crop to several times. The present research has designed and built an automated system for climate control of a rose greenhouse. This system is consisted of control and measurement stations. The control unit, itself, is consisted of a human-machine interface (HMI) device; while the measurement station is formed of one humidity, one light, and eight temperature sensors. Climate conditions of the greenhouse is received by the measurement station, there to be sent to the control one. Also, energy consumption in both systems are calculated and analyzed, too. The present research compares the impacts of the built automated system for climate control of greenhouse on the qualitative and quantitative traits of three cut-roses cultivars including 'Angelina', 'Samurai', and 'Red One' with the control system. Quality index and shoot weight of the cut-roses are improved under the automated system than the control. But there no difference could be found in traits of flowering stem length and number, stem diameter, number of lateral and blind shoots, internodes length, and vase-life, between the crops of two systems compared. The results also indicate a reduction in energy consumption under the automated climate management system than the control, equal to 12%. In sum, considering that the use of climate control system has improved the efficiency of energy consumption without having a negative impact on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the crop, it is recommended.