How do you heat your Greenhouse?

mgagner · November 12, 2018, 10:25pm

Hello @growopowners and @mastergrowers on Growers Network! We, at WoodMaster, have been in the business of greenhouse heating for 20+ years and just getting our feet wet, within the cannabis industry. I’m wondering if you’d be open and willing to share some honest feedback on your interest and experiences with biomass heating.

As you know, cannabis growing has an appetite for energy. According to scientist, Evan Mills, with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, indoor growing operations produce 15 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions! Cannabis growers are slowly moving toward energy efficient practices, including heating with biomass heat, cordwood and wood pellets. These fuel sources are stable, abundant, renewable, affordable, C02 neutral and do not contribute to climate change.

We’d greatly appreciate your feedback, positive and negative, on the following questions:

Have you ever considered using biomass heating for your cannabis grow? Why or why not?
If you’ve used a biomass heating system, please describe your experience.
What is the approximate BTU requirement needed for your grow facility?

Thank you, in advance, for taking the time, effort and energy to complete this poll.

Warmest Regards,

Marisa and The WoodMaster Team

Farmer_Dan · November 13, 2018, 12:41am

I can’t wait until I sell my crop and buy one kit for each of my 3 greenhouses. I think it is going to be amazing for drying my crop and getting my veg plants started sooner outdoors.

omykiss1953 · December 2, 2018, 10:24pm

I’m sorry, but the use of ‘wood products’ is NOT CO2 neutral or carbon neutral and your quote by Mills is incorrect as well.

mgagner · December 4, 2018, 6:25pm

Would you be willing to share your knowledge/reasoning/sources for wood products not being CO2 neutral? This seems to be a debated topic among many professional circles. The quote by scientist, Evan Mills, is from an article entitled, “Pot is Power Hungry: Why the marijuana industry’s footprint is growing.” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/27/marijuana-industry. Thanks for your feedback.

omykiss1953 · December 5, 2018, 12:29am

your link to Evan’s research on the Guardian did not work.
Wood burning regardless of the efficiency or design, causes air pollution (are you suggesting that the carbon sequestration from the wood source is equal to the CO2 generation of burning it makes it carbon neutral?): CO, CO2, micro sized C particles, free radicals, acids and other gases that contribute to global warming, smog and a general worsening of the air we and our plants breath with Inversion layers and topography can make matters worse.

The use of multiple green energy sources are a better method: solar, batteries, generators, wind, heat storage through physical Mass or water and insulated greenhouses are better solutions.

There are enough articles / white papers to google out there that compare heating methods by fuel, climate, crops and delta-Ts with formula’s to figure out your needs and potential expenditures.

ethan · December 5, 2018, 1:06am

Bravo! This needs to be said.

Kareenabis420 · December 5, 2018, 5:05pm

Hey all,

Here is the link to the article on Evan Mills’ research that Marisa was referring to…

Happy chatting and growing!

~ Kareenabis~

omykiss1953 · December 5, 2018, 6:31pm

I just read Evan’s article and came away with:
Indoor cultivation has matured in the areas of conservation and efficiency since this article was written. The the ‘Science’ of growing Cannabis has become mainstream and cross-over from traditional horticulture is improving yields, reducing inputs and accelerating sustainability.

He does not understand the science of Cannabis cultivation and the issues with ‘growing’ medicine and that the regulations are stricter than for the alcohol industry (think product conforming lab analysis and production constraints as well as higher taxes). Just think if your town taxed beer at 24% !!!

ethan · December 5, 2018, 10:08pm

Evans article in the Garden does take the good hard science on climate change into account in a rational way. The article does not reflect what we really see.

Growers can a should in my opinion be should have a strong social justice component to there operations. One of our responsibilities is to leave the world a better place than we have found it. I gave away all my seconds to the local food shelf. I helped the Mung in Kansas City, get the specialty seeds they dreamed of from home, on my APHIS permit. They needed and helped them with new ways to control novel diseases, biologically. I let the Mung community start seedlings in our propagation rooms, to help them get into there fields down the road earlier. This ment more food in children’s stomachs, better health for a whole community. I learned a whole new style of food. I made a difference.

This is why I am so privileged to be a member of this Forum. I can give insights into production and information technology to professionals, who may not have the depth of knowledge at this stage of there lives or careers, but the want to learn and produce a better crop this time and continually improve there skills as growers. I am gifted by people like @nick, @Hunter, @Growernick and to many others on this forum to name, to have a place to add my mind and hopefully make the world a better place than I found it.

I have watched the glasshouse industry and all of horticulture change dramatically in the last 40 years. I have extensively studied the history of horticulture.

I have seen glasshouse growers go from coal to natural gas. I have witnessed what the 1973 energy crisis affects on glasshouse production.
I have seen the changes in methods of covering a greenhouse go from glass to plastic, to acrylic and back to special glass systems. I have seen mushroom production move from glasshouses to caves.

I am now watching with great anticipation the move to energy efficient warehouse production, a true homogeneous environment.

I am watching growers who are making ice at night using off peak power and using this ice in helping in there HVAC systems during the day.

I am watching the use of LED lights over HID lighting. Will the next step be tuning the light to only the spectrums need for both photosynthesis and secondary plant compounds. Will we see UV spectrum used in a more limited way to control pathogens? I hope this will be true, 20 hours of high UV output is probably not needed. Study project for a graduate student.

Can we capture waste heat from our operations and put it back into our operations, yes. Can we heat better yes. Warmer roots cooler tops, mean more secondary plant compounds!

I see growers watering with water the optimal temperature for the root zone. Using flash heaters. Bravo.

I have grown under infrared catalyst heaters in very high end glasshouses. Not everyone can build a Cadillac, they have to start within there pocket book. And that may be a high tunnel in a small field and that’s just OK.

I know growers who add a windmill or solar for every kilowatt of energy they use, order to reduce there carbon footprint and save money on there electric bill. The are members of electric generation cooperatives and buy into generation equal to there usage and have no power bills. Smart thinkers.

I have watched growers of every branch of horticulture dramatically reduced all forms of inputs. I am seeing grower move back to clay pots instead of plastic. And safely reuses them for years when cleaned the old way.

I watch great growers who use unpasteurized composted pine bark as a major component of soilless mixes because of it positive impact on the roots zone health. Lower usage of chemical fungus control in the root zone.

The thought of burning wood even waste wood for my heat source is like asking me to burn coal. Or asking me to kill my son to save my own life. That is not going to happen.

We can be carbon neutral in the production of cannabis. This should be our goal. This is what we should leave to our next generation of growers. I think our next generation of growers are going to master cannabis production as a carbon sinc.

From the voices in my head
Ethan

MBS_Engineering · February 28, 2019, 10:33pm

We are using gas turbine power plants to cut electrical cost, and reduce CO2 footprint. Through a process called ‘cogeneration’, we capture heat, use a heat exchanger, and are able to utilize ‘waste’ heat to dry hemp, or heat very large spaces. We’re working on new technology that repurposes the little bit of CO2 in the clean exhaust our turbines produce, to help grow plants.

Our solution is 90% efficient, and even with natural gas and financing fees combined, we can typically cut an electric bill in half.

microturbine basics.pdf (353.5 KB)
On-Site Power Solutions - MBS Engineering.pdf (771.4 KB)