Background
Greenhouse temperature control and ventilation management are one of the most important segments that affect the efficiency of greenhouses. Good ventilation is essential for maintaining an ideal growing environment and increasing greenhouse efficiency. For example, ventilation helps with temperature and humidity controls, as well as the prevention of disease. Besides, ventilation is also vital for air circulation and carbon dioxide replenishment. And temperatures in greenhouses must be appropriate as well for growth and production. Either too high or too low temperature has a negative influence on the growth of plants, energy consumption, and crop quality attributes.
Project
In America, 100 huge greenhouses with each one holding between $150,000 to $450,000 worth of plants, urgently require a solution that could help achieve the needs of greenhouse temperature control and ventilation management. Milesight with its partner Nursery Sentry, delivered a smart greenhouse solution by the use of Milesight LoRaWAN® IoT Controller and Nursery Sentry’s application server, which helps achieve greenhouse temperature control and ventilation management thus improving production efficiency.
Challenges
- High Cost of ManualControl
Manual control results in a waste of time since people need to operate on-site which is not effective. It is urgent and necessary to deploy devices to meet the requirements of automatic and remote control.
- Inconvenient Network Deployment
Except for the high cost of the deployment of the network, it is also a big issue to deploy since the greenhouses are sited in remote rural areas.
Solution
To tackle the challenges and solve the problems of the project, Milesight provides UC1114 LoRaWAN® IoT Controller in the solution. It is easy to connect with multiple devices through GPIO/AI/RS232/RS485 interfaces and simplifies the deployment of LoRaWAN® networks. Milesight IoT Controllers are connected to heaters, as well as the ventilation motors that control the greenhouse drop-down curtain in the case. Since it’s compliant with standard LoRaWAN® gateways and network servers, once the temperature exceeds the defined ranges, Nursery Sentry’s application server can automatically send the commands back to LoRaWAN® IoT Controller to control the curtains up and down which could monitor and control the device with smartphones remotely.
Deployment
LoRaWAN® wireless transmission allows for simple installation and deployment. Milesight LoRaWAN® IoT Controllers are installed in the boxes that are hung on the steel frame of the greenhouse. The curtain motors and heaters are connected to the controllers through different interfaces. If the greenhouse temperature is too high and reaches the threshold, the Nursury Sentry’s Application Server will trigger the LoRaWAN® IoT Controller to control the curtain motors to pull up the curtains for ventilation. On the contrary, if the temperature is too low, Milesight LoRaWAN IoT Controller can pull down the curtains and open up the heaters for warming up to the demands of the Nursery Application Server. This smart greenhouse solution not only ensures the proper temperature, humidity and good ventilation in the greenhouse but also improves the quality of the plants and prevents the potential of getting diseases.
Featured Products
UC1114 Controller (Now upgraded as UC300 IoT Controller)
Benefits
- Remote and Real-time Management
People can control the controllers and then control the drop-down curtain and the heaters remotely by the use of the Milesight IoT Controller and the AS from Nursery Sentry in the project, to ensure a suitable environment for the growing plants, thus reducing labor costs and enhancing the convenience of management.
- Automated Actions
Thanks to the rules-based automation feature of Nursery Sentry’s AS, it allows the Milesight IoT controller to open a greenhouse curtain if the temperature is too high automatically. A flexible rules engine of the AS that can send email and text messages when conditions exceed defined ranges.
- Convenient Deployment
UC1114 LoRaWAN® IoT controller has several I/O interfaces including analog inputs, digital inputs and relay outputs which facilitate the deployment of LoRaWAN® networks. It is economical for people to only use this device and make the solution LoRaWAN® based.
Partner
Nursery Sentry is a wireless monitoring and automation solution for nurseries, greenhouses, and orchards.
