Configuring your greenhouse location and crop compartments
Configuring your greenhouse location with crop compartments is very important for a reliable outcome in the strategies you make in Strategy Manager. The input is used for most calculations in the crop and energy strategies. Please note that it only needs to be configured once for every compartment and then, you are ready to go!
Once you are in Strategy Manager, go to “Settings” (which is the little cartwheel icon on the bottom left of your screen ). In the Settings menu, go to “Company location settings”, which is the second option in the Settings menu.
Compartment
In the Company location settings menu, first select a company location. These company locations are connected to your MyLetsGrow account and the dropdown already shows you these locations. For every company location, you can add crop compartments . If you click on “+ Add crop compartment”, a pop-up screen opens where the configuration starts.
In the first screen (out of 4 in total), you have to give a name to the
compartment, as well as the greenhouse type (A-Frame or Arched Roof). Also the
number of bays (in Dutch: “aantal kappen”) is required to fill in. The
dimensions should be in meters.
Finally, the number of external side walls is required. This the number of walls that is connected to the outside air. If your compartment has all side walls connected to the outside air, it is a completely detached compartment and you fill in 2x2. If your greenhouse compartment has no side walls at all connected to the outside air, it’s a completely enclosed compartment and you fill in 0x0.
Heating
By clicking on “Next”, you arrive at the second screen, where information regarding isolation and heating are needed. The U-value of the roof and side walls are properties of the greenhouse material. This value can be found be checking your greenhouse material type and name of the material. [If you have no clue what your greenhouse material is, you can assume that your roof and side walls are made from single glass 8mm with a corresponding U-value of 5.6.]
The heating system needs to be selected as well. This is the heating system that is bringing heat to your crop compartment. You can select multiple systems in the dropdown. If you select more than one heating system in the dropdown, please note that the assumption is made that these selected heating systems are used equally in your strategy. If you know the exact heating efficiency of your entire boiler house, it is best to only select “Other” and then fill in the precise heating efficiency of your boiler house (which can be retrieved from your historical data). Another option is to select “Other” and fill in a heating efficiency of 100% if you want to know how much energy is needed to heat your compartment (and not how much energy needs to go into your heating system). Finally, you can indicate whether there is a cooling installation available in your compartment or not. Please note that without a cooling installation, your average weekly greenhouse temperature cannot go under the average weekly outside temperature in a strategy.
Lighting
By clicking on “Next”, you arrive at the third screen, where we find the parameters regarding lighting. In the dropdown, you can choose between None, HPS (SON-T), LED or Both/hybrid. By choosing HPS (SON-T) or LED, you need to fill in the number of fixtures and the average power per fixture. You can keep the fixture efficiency at 80% by default, unless you know the precise percentage of how much of the total light produced in the fixture is delivered to the area below. [If you have no clue how many fixtures your compartment has, you can make an assumption of 0.2 fixtures per m2 (and multiply this by the total surface area of your greenhouse compartment) with an average power of 700W per SON-T fixture or 500W per LED fixture.]
The last part is to fill in the greenhouse transmission percentage. This percentage is without coating, screening or any other modifications. This percentage can also be retrieved from your historical data if you have both an outside and inside pyranometer. Later, if you make your crop strategies, you can change this percentage per week if desired.
Screening
By clicking on “Next”, you arrive at the fourth and final screen. In here, you can add any black-out, energy or shading screen. For every screen, you have to add the corresponding U-value and light transmission percentage. [If you have no clue what the screen U-value is, you can assume that your screen has an U-value of 2.8. Light transmission percentage of a black-out screen can be assumed to be 1%, energy 80% and shading 25%.]
Once you have added the screen(s) to your compartment, you click on “Finish”, the pop-up screen closes and your crop compartment has successfully been configured.