Evaporative Cooling Green House

[NepNut]

Hi everyone,
As some of you might know, EP produced some of the world best nep hybrids with H/L and intermediate nep species, how do they do it when they're based in a L/L nursery?

I also know just few months ago someone from Thailand also managed to grow H/L and intermediate neps in Bangkok (besides Oat ).

How No... not cool house with air conditioning on for 24 hrs a day. It's by using a so called "Evaporative Cooling Pad". If you want more information on this, just google for it.

I think this is probably the most cost effective way to grow most intermediates and H/L nep in L/L (with certain degree of success but not perfect) without paying for electricity through your nose...

My question, has anyone in Malaysia have similar setup? If so, mind sharing how you do it? Thanks.

[NepNut]

Hmmm.... seems not to trigger any response from fellow members. May be a few pics will get some healthy discussion going...

Below are the links to forum with pics from Nepenthes Siam

http://xir007.proboards.com/index.cg...ad=3031&page=2

http://xir007.proboards.com/index.cg...ad=3031&page=4

http://xir007.proboards.com/index.cg...ad=3031&page=6

http://xir007.proboards.com/index.cg...ad=3031&page=7

[soonsuseong]

hi robert, i am trying an aircon setup with mister. so far, hard to say if it is succesful....or expensive!! the heliamphora died, maybe too root rot or lack of light. the cephalotus hates it , too much humidity. too early to talk about nep species but the hybrids (which doesnt have any problem with lowland conditions anyway!) are doing good. oh yeah, chaniana looks happy. i think the ultimate test is rajah. if that survives, maybe can try other HL. so far, i am only testing with maybe 31 daytime, 18 at night for 9 hours. i am worried about my bills!

evaporative coolers should bring down the temp, but i wonder, how low can it go? increasing humidity is easy though, any humidifier will do? you using one, robert?

[soonsuseong]

isnt that on aircon up there or is it something else? the plant pictures make me drool.........
wah, hamata so healthy, thought i am dreaming. and all this in thailand. okok, let us all dream big!

by the way, my setup already cost me a bomb. theirs look cheaper and it is functioning well, with evidence!

[NepNut]

Hi Dr Soon,

Thanks for your feedback on your cool house. Glad to know it's up and running, there'll be kinks to work out since it's still fairly new but I'm sure you will get some encouraging results after a few months except maybe for the electricity bill...

Actually, the advantages about evaporative cooling pad are (as far as I understand)

1) lower temperature to about 10-13C from the outside surrounding temperature.
2) increase and maintain humidity (up to 80%) without the use of any humidifier.

Since most H/L or intermediate species needs similar requirement (temperature difference of ~10C and high humidity), so it's possible to do it in L/L without spending too much $$$ on electricity since the main operating requirement for a evaporative green house is mainly dependent on the exhaust fans and water pump.

All this is basically what I understand from my reasearch and I have no practical knowledge how it operate and any other unforseen disadvantage during real word application. However, looking at the results (from EP and recently from Thailand) I'm optimistic that this method is viable for those that interested in growing H/L and intermediate nep species in L/L tropical weather.

The limitation for this green house is probably for growing those ultra H/L species. As you mentioned, some intermediates and H/L species or hybrids already manage to grow OK in L/L tropical weather....However the ultimate test is to see whether those neps will flower under such condition, maybe an evaporative green house will make it possible.....

I'm planning to use such technique (evap cooling) but I still need feedbacks from fellow members who have experience running such setup.

[NepNut]

Originally Posted by soonsuseong

isnt that on aircon up there or is it something else? the plant pictures make me drool.........
wah, hamata so healthy, thought i am dreaming. and all this in thailand. okok, let us all dream big!

Good eye !! I don't know yet about the air cond unit but I think it's probably to work as a supplement to evaporative cooling. I'll find out the details.

Another one evaporative green house at Thailand for fern lovers....

http://www.iloveferns.com/index.php/...p-Greenhouse./

This should get some heads turning...

[shawnintland]

Wow! Those are quite some plants they are growing, Huh? I'll have to do some searching but I know I have4 a few links to other E.C. greenhouses. I think Wanna from 'I Love Ferns' has a post on hers n which she mostly grows platyceriums.Whoops - I see you just found her!
I'm still running mist and auto irrigation in my shade houses but the temps are still higher than I'd like. I just moved most of my seedling germination boxes back to my porch as I think the high temps are inhibiting germination. But boy the watering is a whole lot easier these days - everything is on either auto mist 4x/day or auto drip irrigation 2-4x/day. Now it just requires spot touchups with the hose.
~Shawn

[NepNut]

Hi Shawn,
Why don't you set one up, don't have to be a big one but then again your land is so big...

Since there's a few EC green house already up and running in Thailand, I think it would be easier to source for parts and expertise required to get it setup in Thailand. FYI, EC is not somrthing new, it's been used in enclosed chicken and pig farm all over the world, so parts sourcing shouldn't be a big problem. It would be great if we can get some feedback on the real world performance, maintainence and monthly cost so we can better understand whether it'll be cost effective to get such setup in tropical countries.

About drip irrigation, what kind of system did you use? Maybe can start a new thread on this topic for all of us to learn? Thanks.

[cjloong]

I think evaporative cooling works best for dry environment. More like desert environment it works best.

From my experience of cooling aquariums, for our rainy and humid (relatively speaking), it can cool down about 4C maybe. Another thing that will counter the effects of cooling is seeping of heat back to the system. ie. heat comes back faster than the cooler removing it. For that, we will have to see our web bulb temperature.

Do see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler, performance section if you wanna predict how low it can go. You have to calculate from dew point and humidity.

Regards
cj

[NepNut]

Hi CJ,
Thanks for your input, appreciated. Yes, theoretically speaking, evaporative cooling will work best when you have lower RH. However putting theory aside for a moment, EP and folks from Thailand managed to do it with the results to show, there might be some adjustment needed to make to increase the cooling effect (maybe with the addition of extra air cond unit to supplement the cooling instead of using it solely to cool the green house).

There's a difference between evaporative cooler compared to the evaporative pads used in the green house. The latter used evaporative cooling pads on the wall of the green house instead of using a evaporative cooler (like a fan). I'm guessing the performance might be better using evaporative cooling pads since the evaporation area will be greater.

We still need inputs from people that have actually done it to get a better idea how good it work in tropical countries. I'm optimistic that this technology may help to create more nep hybrids with H/L to intermediate parentage in L/L tropical growing environment. I won't be surprise to see new nep hybrids with such parentage coming out from Thailand in the next few years...