Inspiring future generations to grow sustainably.

OUR PROJECT

We are collaborating with the Biological and Agricultural Engineering department at UC Davis to develop a smart greenhouse that will be used to educate students on sustainable indoor farming. Our goal is to design, build, and test a greenhouse that is electrically off-grid, utilizes an aeroponic grow system, and could autonomously control its grow environment. This greenhouse will be housed on the university campus, with the intent of providing a long-term experiential learning space for future students.

01 / ENERGY EFFICIENT

With the use of a photovoltaic system we plan to be electrically off-grid. We emphasizes on the use of renewable energy sources, because they provide clean energy for our daily lives without the negative byproducts of traditional energy (such as CO2 emissions).

02 / WATER

EFFICIENT

The plant production system consists of an aeroponics systems made up of polyvinyl chloride piping. Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in a soilless medium typically consisting of a mist environment. This method of growing plants allows us to recycle our grow medium for 2 weeks.

03 /AUTONOMOUSLY CONTROLLED

To maintain the perfect environment inside the greenhouse, we will be using a small space heater and a cooling fan by the small opening of the greenhouse. We will connect sensors to these heating/cooling elements in order to maintain the perfect environment for the plants.

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Feed pipe

Rockwool
(On the inside)

Wooden frame

Water filter

Basil

Layout of the aeroponics system (side view):

Nutrient reservoir

Feed pipe

PVC pipe

Submersible pump, air stones, nutrient solution, and sensors.

Germination station

Layout of the aeroponics system (front view):

Product

MODELING

Thermal Modeling

The thermal modeling of the greenhouse involved assessing the passive heating and cooling of the greenhouse to gain better insight into what the photovoltaic system would require. Performance of the thermal mass and interior temperature of the greenhouse was estimated over varying outside air temperature using CIMIS data for one year.

Power Modeling

We estimated power demand and usage required to run our project. We considered both off-grid DC or AC system. The benefits of a DC system is that it is simpler and easier to install and it charges the battery more efficiently. While an AC system will allow for higher voltage devices to be powered and it generates less heat using a solar inverter.

Irrigation Modeling

We attempted to model the pressure loss of the water from the pump to the end of the nozzles. We learned about many different modeling strategies, but the one we used was the Equivalent Length Method. This method allows us to describe pressure drop through a PVC component as the pressure drop through a length of a pipe.

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