As a clean and efficient energy source, solar energy is used in a variety of ways, and for plant enthusiasts, it offers a new way to keep their greenhouses warm.
1. Solar greenhouse principle
Solar heating, which is the conversion of solar energy into electrical energy that is then delivered to a heater to maintain the temperature in the greenhouse.
However, although it also utilizes electrical energy to produce heat, unlike traditional electricity, solar heating does not incur electricity costs. Sunlight is converted into electricity through solar panels, and this DC power is then converted into AC power through an inverter before being delivered to your heater.
If the electricity generated during the day is not used up, it can be stored in an electrical storage system so that it can be used to power your heater at night.
2. Benefits of using solar heating
Solar energy has many advantages as a high quality green renewable energy source.
Traditional greenhouses often use hot air, geothermal heat pumps, and thermoelectric for heating, all of which are energy-intensive and costly. Solar heating systems, on the other hand, use sunlight converted to electricity, consuming excessive energy, in addition to incurring virtually no further costs other than those incurred during the PV purchase, transportation, and installation process, whereas other methods require the purchase of other energy sources to keep the system running.
The installation process of photovoltaics is simple, does not require complicated work, does not take up too many resources, and is much simpler to maintain. In contrast, geothermal heating, which is generally used, has pipes buried in the ground that are difficult to maintain, and is difficult and costly to install.
Solar energy, as a clean energy source, produces less carbon footprint and pollutants in the process of use, and has almost no impact on human beings and plants; whereas traditional hot air heating often requires coal or fuel oil as a fuel, which may produce toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, affecting human health and crop growth.
3. Related greenhouse assistance
Solar greenhouse belongs to the active greenhouse, is a use of solar energy converter and the corresponding heat storage system to replace the conventional use of electricity, natural gas or steam heating greenhouse system. In the construction of the greenhouse at the same time, you can use pebbles, water, sand and such materials can be used to assist the greenhouse heating. This is because they can all absorb and release energy to regulate the temperature.
4. Problems that may be encountered
(1) Whether to choose to enter the grid
For PV, you have two choices, you can choose to buy a power storage system, if the area has a power outage or at night, you can directly use the stored power to keep the greenhouse at the right temperature.
Or you can connect your PV directly to the grid, in which case you may get the benefit of a local net metering policy, but in that case your power will be limited, for example, in the event of a regional blackout you will not be able to get power from the local grid and the greenhouse will not be able to get a timely supply of heat.
Whether or not you choose to go on the grid depends on your needs for the greenhouse and the availability of local electricity.
(2) Whether plants can receive sunlight
The most important thing for a greenhouse owner is that the plants in the greenhouse can grow healthily, so if the solar panels absorb all the sunlight will the plants be able to grow? This is a misunderstanding, although the solar light panels need to absorb sunlight, but there is no need to block all the sunlight, after all, the solar light panels will only be towards a direction. On the contrary solar light panels can also prevent plants from being exposed to strong sunlight. However, for those plants that are sun-loving, the owner should still consider the installation range of the solar panel well.
(3) Weather Impact
Because solar light panels need to be exposed to the outdoors, they are easily affected by the weather. For those areas with less sunny weather and more rainy weather, whether to install solar energy still needs to be considered. Strong convective weather such as hail and high winds may damage your PV equipment and you need to be prepared for this.
