Rooftop Greenhouse: (2) Analysis of Thermal Energy Loads of a Building-Integrated Rooftop Greenhouse (BiRTG) for Urban Agriculture

Uk-Hyeon Yeo, Sang-Yeon Lee, Se-Jun Park, Jun-Gyu Kim, Jeong-Hwa Cho, Cristina Decano-Valentin, Rack-Woo Kim and In-Bok Lee
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Uk-Hyeon Yeo: Agriculture, Animal & Aquaculture Intelligence Research Center, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon 34129, Korea
Sang-Yeon Lee: Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Se-Jun Park: Department of Rural Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Jun-Gyu Kim: Department of Rural Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Jeong-Hwa Cho: Department of Rural Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Cristina Decano-Valentin: Department of Rural Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Rack-Woo Kim: Department of Smart Farm Engineering, College of Industrial Sciences, Kongju National University, 54 Daehak-ro, Yesan-eup, Yesan-gun 32439, Korea
In-Bok Lee: Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-26

Abstract: Building-integrated rooftop greenhouses (BiRTGs) are innovative vertical farms consisting of a greenhouse on the roof of a building. BiRTGs can provide environmental benefits by recycling energy, carbon dioxide, and water between the greenhouse and the building. Moreover, BiRTGs can reduce cooling and heating loads by reducing the exposure of the building surface to heat gains/losses through the roof. However, the benefits of BiRTGs have not yet been completely elucidated from an energy perspective. This study aimed to analyse the energy-saving efficiency of BiRTGs using building energy simulations (BES) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. BES is a calculation method for analysing the heating and cooling loads of buildings; however, it was difficult to consider time-dependent changes in the ventilation characteristics in the BES model. CFD can be used to calculate more detailed ventilation characteristics of an experimental facility. Thus, CFD and the BES were combined to obtain more accurate BES-based data. The BES-computed annual energy load for a single-span greenhouse in which tomatoes were grown was 490,128 MJ, whereas the annual energy load for growing tomatoes in a BiRTG resulted in a 5.2% reduction, on average (464,673 MJ). The energy-saving effects were positive from October to April because the BiRTG helped transmit heat energy transmitted from the building to the greenhouse. Regarding the total energy load in the BiRTG after alternating the air temperature management (ATM), the heating energy load was reduced in the winter. ATM was expected to apply from November to March, with average energy savings of 11.8%.

Keywords: building energy simulation (BES); computational fluid dynamics (CFD); heating and cooling energy load; rooftop greenhouse (RTG); urban agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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