Economic aspects of energy saving in greenhouses: physical considerations

An important result of experiments carried out over the past six years in a trial greenhouse at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland) was the development of a simple and precise method for calculating the energy requirements of a glasshouse; this is valid for any type of greenhouse and climate. An economic study is made using the above method for evaluating the financial effectiveness of various energy-saving methods: double glazing of the side walls, low emissivity glass 'Hortiplus' roofing, soil level heating and a thermal screen.