Cooling of a polyethylene tunnel type greenhouse by means of a rock bed

Ahmet Kürklü and Sefai Bilgin

Renewable Energy, 2004, vol. 29, issue 13, 2077-2086

Abstract: An experiment was conducted to cool a 15 m2 ground area plastic-tunnel-type greenhouse by the use of a rock bed. An identical greenhouse with no rock bed was also erected for control purposes. Two rock-bed canals, each with the dimensions of 3×1.25×0.75 m, were dug in the soil of the experimental greenhouse. After the canals were filled with the rocks and insulated, the top surface was covered by a soil layer of thickness enough for the root development depth of the plants. Air was pushed through the rock bed by a centrifugal fan with a 1100 m3/h flow rate. Energy stored in the rock bed during the day was dumped outside the greenhouse at night using the cooler outside air. The results of the measurements showed that the rock-bed system maintained air temperature 14 °C lower at maximum in the experimental greenhouse than the control one. The temperature difference seemed to increase with increasing solar radiation and outside air temperature. Relative humidity during the day remained at about 40% in the experimental greenhouse and was always higher than that in the control one. The coefficient of performance (COP) of the rock-bed system was higher than 3 in general, and it was observed that this value increased with decreasing rock-bed temperature. The average solar collection efficiency was 38%. The rock-bed system seems to have a significant potential for cooling applications in greenhouses.

Keywords: Rock bed; Cooling; Greenhouses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148104001193
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:29:y:2004:i:13:p:2077-2086

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2004.03.005

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().