A production cost that can be further reduced is energy cost. This can be done by reducing overall energy consumption or using energy more efficiently. Space heating is an area of interest for energy reduction. The performance of a heat recovery ventilator, a conventional heating system and a ground source heat pump in grow-finish rooms were evaluated over several seasons. Compared to the conventional heater, the heat exchanger and ground source heat pump led to 54% and 45% reduction in energy consumption, respectively. Performance was similar in all rooms, but the ground source heat pump and heat exchanger rooms had slightly lower feed intake and more favourable feed efficiency than the forced-convection heater room.
Evaluation of Heat Exchanger, Ground Source Heat Pump, and Conventional Heating Systems (full article)
