How Greenhouse Energy Monitoring Increases Profits
August 17, 2023 
Photo: Hurst Greenery
These days we monitor everything: our heart rate when we go for a run, our screen time when we stare at our phone, and our miles per gallon when we fill up our tank. We use smart watches, smart phones, and smart cars to track data, analyze information, and suggest actions for us to take to improve our outcomes.
Some smart technology also tracks energy use. Energy can account for up to 60% of a greenhouse’s operating costs. How can growers monitor energy to improve profitability?
Energy monitoring equipment can track real-time energy use of greenhouse systems like lights, screens, and fans and analyze trends in consumption and demand to save energy and increase profit margins.
Energy Sink
Most growers monitor energy consumption at the building level using monthly utility bills. Energy costs primarily are driven by electricity and natural gas, as well as delivered fuels like propane or wood. Many business owners look at one number on a utility bill: the cost. But energy suppliers provide other important information on bills, like rate structure and usage.
Being on the right utility rate can save businesses money. Monthly bills include details regarding which rate is being used to calculate costs. The rate for a facility influences charges for usage and demand. Rates for usage can be by the $/kWh for electricity or $/therm for natural gas. Rates for demand can be by the $/kW for electricity. Greenhouse managers should inquire with energy suppliers about the most cost-effective rate for each facility based on typical usage and demand.
Understand average facility energy usage to track and flag spikes in demand or consumption. Some utilities offer online dashboards that describe trends in monthly energy use and can compare year-over-year. These are helpful for businesses with multiple stakeholders focused on managing energy costs.
Meter Made
To improve performance, understand baseline system behavior. Many growers do not have integrated systems that communicate across platforms, and even less have systems monitoring energy use real-time.
Innovative technology providers offer energy monitoring. Microclimates combines leading edge control computing with long range wireless sensors, to make invisible data visible. Microclimates hardware and software give growers real-time energy monitoring data to manage operating costs of greenhouses more effectively.
Each zone of a facility at the equipment and circuit level can be monitored to target optimization strategies. Energy usage patterns, trends, and anomalies are shared across teams and businesses gain remote control of greenhouse environments.
Fault detection and diagnostics mitigate risks by alerting teams to issues using smart algorithms. Increases in energy consumption and big changes in peak demand are easy to identify for quick issue resolution and outage prevention.
Screen Queen
Greenhouse curtain systems and HVAC equipment can be an untapped source of energy monitoring data.
Innovative curtain providers offer energy savings opportunities. Ludvig Svensson offers a new Energy Monitor module within the LetsGrow platform which visualizes financial savings and recommends screen strategies to save energy and money.
Energy monitoring strategies use live and historical data like heat pipe temperature, greenhouse space temperature and humidity levels, energy screen position, and energy usage. Growers can focus on plants by letting automated recommendations help reduce energy costs.
Big Data
Data from energy monitoring systems will be a crucial tool for growers to reduce energy costs from greenhouse HVAC equipment. Heating can be the second or third largest operating cost for greenhouse growers, with natural gas usage for heating end uses accounting for 70% to 80% of annual energy usage.
Energy costs can represent more than 10% of annual greenhouse grower sales and energy monitoring can be a helpful tool for maximizing profits. To get started with energy monitoring at your facility, work with energy engineers like our team at ERI who can provide specialized recommendations for implementing fault detection and diagnostics. Work with professionals to make operational adjustments and get rebates for efficiency projects.
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