Co-simulating a greenhouse in a building to quantify co-benefits of different coupled configurations

Urban Farm DB summary

A study addressing the lack of quantification of combined building-integrated greenhouse performance developed a building energy simulation (BES) of an archetype school building in EnergyPlus, co-simulated with a validated greenhouse energy simulator (GES), for school buildings in London, UK. Different greenhouse-building coupling configurations were evaluated via sensitivity analysis and a parametric study to estimate potential crop growth, heat recovery, and reduction in ventilation demand. A 250 m2 greenhouse on the top floor of the school could produce 6 t of lettuce with half the energy demand of an equivalent standalone greenhouse. Trade-offs among increased humidity, yields, and energy efficiency show that modeling is needed to ensure optimal designs.