dc.description.abstract |
In any agricultural sector, the need of the hour is to maximize the yield per
unit area to cater the needs of our population, which is exploding at an alarming rate.
Protected cultivation or controlled environment agriculture is one of the methods to
increase the crop production from unit area. Of the various forms of protected
cultivation, greenhouses are most common. Our state falls under humid tropical
climatic condition. Greenhouse cooling is to be done during peak hours of daytime
under this climatic condition. Ventilation plays an important role in green house
cooling. A study was conducted to determine the optimum greenhouse ventilation
for humid tropics and to analyze the effect of different cooling methods viz. natural
ventilation, fan and pad system, mist system and roof shading on greenhouse
cooling.
The study showed that natural ventilation could reduce the greenhouse
temperature to a great extent. The different percentages of ventilation used for the
experiment were 13.8, 11.5, 9.2, 6.9, 4.6 and 2.3. The study was also conducted
without ventilation. As percentage ventilation increases, greenhouse cooling
increases and inside relative humidity decreases. 13.8 percent ventilation gave
maximum greenhouse cooling and this value is taken as the optimum percentage of
natural ventilation. But the natural ventilation alone cannot meet the cooling
requirement during peak hours. Fan and pad system is found to be not effective for
greenhouse cooling in this particular study. Even 2.3 percentage of natural
ventilation condition gave better cooling than fan and pad cooling system. Misting is
an effective method to lower down the greenhouse temperature within a short period
of time. Misting was done along with fans at different percentages of ventilation and
the different climatic parameters were studied. The results showed that while
misting, the maximum cooling was obtained at 2.3 percent of ventilation. Effect of
roof shading on greenhouse cooling was tested with one shade net over the
greenhouse. Roof shade has a significant effect on greenhouse cooling.
Th inside temperature of the greenhouse was higher than the outside
temperature by more than lOoe during peak hours of the day time, when no
ventilation was provided and fan and pad system, mist system and shade cover were
not used. But when the green house was covered with a shade net, an inside to
outside temperature difference of one or two degree was observed. Also, while
operating fan and pad system and mist system, shaded condition gave better cooling.
Fan and pad system operated without shade cover, could not bring down the
greenhouse temperature below ambient temperature. But for the shaded condition,
greenhouse temperature could be lowered to a value less than the ambient
temperature. Misting under shaded condition at 2.3 percent ventilation gave
maximum cooling. Misting inside an unshaded greenhouse at 2.3 percent ventilation
could bring down the greenhouse temperature to 32°C, but misting inside a shaded
greenhouse at 2.3 percent ventilation lowered the greenhouse temperature to 29°C.
Use of two shade net layers did not give any additional cooling, and at this condition
the light intensity inside the greenhouse was only 10 percent of the outside light
intensity. It only increases the cost of the greenhouse and hence it is not
recommended to use two shade net layers for greenhouses. |
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