Lucas Greenhouses, BioTherm Work Together on New Heating and Flood Floor Systems

Posted by Brian Sparks|December 12, 2023

Lucas Greenhouses in New Jersey has been building with BioTherm’s climate technologies since 1980. In the 1980s, it started out with BioTherm heat in its first 9,000 square feet, and now it has more than 2 million square feet of heated space. In 2022, Lucas rooted more than 55 million cuttings, and without root zone heating, it couldn’t even come close to that amount.

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Lucas Greenhouses grows approximately 2 million sq. ft. under glass and 50 acres of outdoor plant production.
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BioTherm GreenPEX in-slab heating provides a warm floor for healthy plant growth.
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BioTherm provided Lucas Greenhouses Raypak boilers as its heat source solution. Pictured are 12 x 4 million BTUH hybrid condensing Raypak XTherm and MVB modulating boiler systems.
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BioTherm provided Lucas Greenhouses Raypak boilers as its heat source solution. Pictured are 12 x 4 million BTUH hybrid condensing Raypak XTherm and MVB modulating boiler systems.
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BioTherm and Lucas collaborated on designing a special Flood Floor system with a high-speed flood/drain.
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BioTherm StarFin provides top heat and snowmelt simultaneously. It requires less water volume and puts out two times the amount of heat than 51mm steel piping. Easy to install, no welding or painting needed.

From BioTherm’s perspective, the company has been a part of almost every Lucas expansion over the last 40+ years. Since the 90s, it has been providing heated flood floors along with top heat/snowmelt for Lucas’ expansions. When it came time to design the latest expansion of 200,000+ square feet, BioTherm went with what has been successful in the past.

This year, Lucas and BioTherm worked on a new approach to flood floor design: the ability to flood two floors at a time and install two separate drains. This gives them the ability to choose where they drain the irrigation water, either back into the water tank or sent to be treated and cleaned. BioTherm designed a special flood floor system with high-speed flood/drain.

Heating Systems

Floor Heat: In-Slab GreenPEX
Top Heat: StarFin Plus Finned Heat-Pipe
Total Heated Area: 181,440 sq. ft.
Heat Source Solution: Raypak Boilers
Boiler: Hybrid condensing Raypak® XTherm and MVB Modulating Boiler system

Flood Floor

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Total Flood Area: 169,344 sq. ft., divided into 48 individually controlled flood floor zones
Max Water Depth: 2 inches
Total Irrigation Time (all zones): two hours
Each FF section is irrigated in approx. 9.3 minutes (4.6 to fill, 4.6 to drain)
System designed to fill two floors at a time while another floor is draining
Max Tank Size: 26,500 gal.
Tank Qty: 3
Style: In-Ground with Transfer Pit
High-volume moving media filtration system

Learn more about the project in the slideshow above.