American Plant Products and Services Home About Products Services Contact Benching, Heating, Cooling & Ventilation Systems Benching Systems Stationary Benches are available in aluminum, steel and structured plastic which are strong, durable & easy to construct. Rolling Benches will expand your present growing space & allow 25-50% more production area in the same greenhouse space with t he sameheating, cooling & utility expenses. Ebb & Flow Benches provide trays that flood with water & fertilizer, then the excess drains off & is reused saving as much as 50% of these costs & labor. Heating, Cooling & Ventilation Heating & cooling equipment is necessary to create and control the desired environment inside the greenhouse to allow you to grow the crops you want when you need them. The most common greenhouse heating method is with heating provided by Forced Air Unit Heaters fueled by natural gas or propane heater. These are usually used with Fan-jets or Horizontal Air Flow (HAF) Fans to distribute the heat more evenly. Hydronic (Hot Water) Heating Systems are available either in bench top or floor systems. Bench systems employ small diameter EPDM Tubing spaced 2” apart on benches to provide bottom heat to warm the roots of the plants to the desired temperature while keeping a lower air temperature. Radiant Floor systems are similar to Bench systems except tubing is larger & spaced further apart and are either buried in the floor or placed inside a concrete slab. Ventilation & Circulation of air can be provided by fanjets which pressurize a polyethylene convection tube to provide even air distribution throughout the greenhouse. When used with an exhaust fan, a Fanjet Inlet Shutter & the greenhouse heaters the Fanjet System provides even air distribution & an excellent means of dehumidifying the greenhouse to prevent disease problems. The system evenly distributes the heat from your greenhouse heater and provides the first stage of greenhouse cooling. Horizontal Air Flow fans are used to set up a continuous circular flow of air inside the greenhouse. This steady flow of air cools or warms leaf surfaces & evaporates disease promoting moisture as well as circulating CO2 to the leaf surface. In addition to ventilation provided by exhaust fans you will need to take additional steps to provide cooling for your greenhouse. The most common cooling method is evaporative cooling, utilizing “cooling pads” & a system that drips water through the pads. This is achieved with an Evaporative Pad System made up of wettable, fibrous material, in the form of cellulose cooling cells. All incoming air passes through the wet fiber of the “Kool-cel”or “Cel-Pak” pads. Water that drips through the pad is collected in a gutter at the bottom and drains into a holding tank that is then recirculated back to the top of the pad system. Fogging systems, also available for cooling, produce droplets of just a few microns which evaporate quickly, cooling the air without overwetting your plants. 9200 N.W. 10th, Oklahoma City, OK (405) 787-4833 | FAX (405) 789-2352 | Toll Free 1-800-522-3376 email: appas@americanplant.com Facebook Twitter