In the high-stakes environment of a commercial greenhouse, finding areas to reduce expenditures and improve production efficiency is a difficult task. Here are four tips to employ in your commercial greenhouse management strategy to help your business run its operations more effectively, saving the business time and money on energy, labor, and materials.
#1 Grow Young Plants Under High Intensity Lights
Young plants grown under high intensity lights germinate faster, and have a greater capacity for photosynthesis — which reduces the amount of energy spent over their lifetime, saving your company money. Although high intensity lights increase heat in the greenhouse, the faster growing cycle means you can harvest sooner, which allows you to scale your production for relative costs.
Efficient high intensity lights, such as LED, fluorescent, high pressure sodium, or metal halide lights, deliver more photons to plants than standard lighting, reducing energy consumption. A higher the daily light integral, means more growth with less energy compared to traditional greenhouse lighting.
#2 Regulate Water Temperature
When trying to identify inefficiencies in commercial greenhouse management, most focus on environmental costs in a greenhouse regarding lighting and air temperature, but water temperature can also be regulated to support energy efficiency and stable plant growth.
Installing temperature-regulating pumps on your water system will allow you to use cooler water to offset heat gain during the day and warmer water at night to limit heat loss. Proper insulation of water storage and distribution can also be helpful to reduce inefficiencies in the hydronic system.
#3 Insulate Greenhouse Side Walls
Commercial greenhouses are designed to take advantage of the sun’s path through the sky. They maximize sun exposure on the south, west, and east walls and use the north wall for the supporting foundation.
Making sure all walls are properly insulated is a great way to reduce heat loss, so your greenhouse design will be the most effective at trapping heat for accelerated plant growth. You can add insulation to “cooler” walls by using foam insulation or even bubble wrap, but don’t forget to insulate the lower walls and foundation to minimize energy waste.
#4 Simplify Repetitive Tasks
A simple way to make your commercial greenhouse management more effective is to invest in time saving equipment and tools that will streamline processes within your greenhouse. Automated planting technology, water-saving fixtures, and packaging tools are all examples of technology used in commercial greenhouse management to simplify menial tasks, reducing the energy and time your employees spend. The added bonus is that saved labor hours get redirected to tasks that require more mental acuity and skill.
Portable modular conveyor belts are another excellent way to speed up the collection of plants, packaging, and the movement of supplies from one end of the greenhouse to the other. They are lightweight and can be easily moved, then broken down and stored when not in use. Modular conveyor systems and other greenhouse technologies can reduce non-value added labor and save your business money.
If your greenhouse is looking for a solution to costly non-value added labor, Rapid-Veyor’s portable modular conveyor belts are what you’ve been looking for. To learn more about this time-saving technology, reach out to our team today.
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