F.L.K. Kempkes, N.J. van de Braak Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 104 2000 133–142 141
and weight of stems. Nor was any difference found in flower quality. In Compartment 2 with the high
maximum temperature 60
◦
C of the lower heating circuit, leaf burning occurred to a small extent where
the leaves touched the heating pipes. As these were the lowest leaves, they could be removed without loss
of quality.
4. Discussion
The results show that, in general, the air tempera- tures above the crop were higher than within the crop,
especially in Compartment 1 with the heating system mounted overhead. When the primary heating system
is mounted low in the crop, the greenhouse air temper- ature above the crop can be decreased by about 1.5
◦
C. This is in agreement with the temperature profiles
Winspear 1978 reported for overhead and ground level heating pipes. Yang 1995 found that air tem-
peratures above a crop of potted chrysanthemums on permeable benches were lower than within the crop in
experiments where all of the heating power was sup- plied below the benches. This agrees with our obser-
vation in Compartment 2 and the general expectation that the more the heat supplied in the lower part of
the crop or below the crop, the greater is increase in the air temperature within the crop with respect to the
temperature above the crop.
The leaf temperatures were very close to the air temperatures within the crop. When the heating re-
quirement is high low outside temperatures, the leaves have slightly higher temperatures than the air,
and during warmer periods, the leaves are slightly colder than the air. Yang 1995, who used a heating
system under benches with potted chrysanthemums, found that leaf temperatures were generally below
the air temperature within the crop, and Zhao et al. 1985 measured leaf temperatures that were higher
than air temperatures when using infrared heaters and vice versa when using air heaters. This shows
that, if sufficient heat is supplied to the crop, either by heating pipes or by infrared radiation, the crop
temperature will be at least locally above the air tem- perature. This provides, on the one hand, a means of
control to prevent condensation on the crop, and thus, reduce the risk of diseases, and on the other hand,
a tool to influence the growth and development of the crop. In our experiments, however, the latter was
not noticeable as no significant difference was found between the crops in the three compartments.
The heat transfer coefficients we used in our cal- culation of the heat consumption are, in general,
dependent on the direct environment of the heating pipes. As this environment is similar for the three
compartments and the outcome is applied in a com- parative way, this method can be used without intro-
ducing larger errors than when using standard flow meters combined with the measured temperature dif-
ference over the heating system Knies et al., 1999. As a result of reducing the air temperature above the
crop, the heating requirement during our test phase decreased by about 11. Accounting for the distri-
bution of the energy demand over a year, the energy conservation will be about 7–9 for a whole year.
Nijeboer and Van Holsteijn 1981 reported a much larger reduction of 20; but they examined one cold
day only, which is not representative for a longer cultivation period with varying conditions.
5. Conclusions
