Greenhouses are used in many climates for season extension or year-round production but heating costs to achieve this can be large. Growers are often faced with management decisions that rely on an understanding of how temperature settings, heating systems, fuel types, and greenhouse structure influence heating costs. Virtual Grower was created by an Amercian research team (reported in HortTechnology) that helps calculate heating costs. The programme uses a weather database of typical hourly temperature, light, and wind information of 230 sites from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the calculations. A user can define unique design characteristics such as building material and construction style, also the type of heating system and heatingschedule. The program will then predict heating costs based on typical weather at the selected location. Shorter-term predictions with weather forecasts of 2 days or less can be made with the software if there is an internet connection through integration with local weather forecasts. Virtual Grower can serve as a platform from which many other features can be added, such as plant growth and scheduling. The Team plan to continue development to improve the software allowing users to perform analysis oftheir heating costs, identify areas to improve production efficiency, and take some of the guesswork out of energy analysis.
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