Greetings from Rochester NY

Hello everyone. I am quite interested in season extending systems. I do work as a consultant in the energy sector. We are doing some work with led lighting and inground radiant electric heating as well as benchtop electric radiant heating. I am looking for strong economic information to help determine good return on investments for backyard as well as commercial growers. Please let me know if you are doing any experimenting with systems like this or if you would like information on the systems.

I think solar pv, radiant heating, led lighting will someday provide cost effective local vegetable production.

Ron

Welcome to TEG, @Ron Friedman! I am glad you found us and hope you will become an active member and good friend.

Tell us a bit more about your gardening endeavors. I believe we are the same -- or close to the same -- growing zone. What alternative energies have you adapted to your garden situation there in New York?

I grow in just a couple of backyard raised beds for now. But I am working with a company that supplies electric radiant heating panels that get buried in the ground. We are just starting to talk with various colleges and universities working in sustainable food production with the hope of getting some pilot projects off the ground to document the cost effective nature of this technology. I can also bring solar electric and led lighting to the growing sector. Here is another product we are bringing to the US from Italy: Solar powered food dryers. http://ronjf1.wix.com/solar-food-drying

Sounds very interesting, Ron.

Way cool!! My season is basically all year long. I just switch from heat loving veggies to cole crops and greens that love cooler temperatures. The past few years I have had a real redneck PVC framed, plastic wrapped greenhouse that I ran an extension cord to with a small electric heater in. We are moving this year, so I want to build a nicer greenhouse. I love tomatoes in the winter and I refuse to buy them from the grocery store.

I start my seeds under fluorescent lights. Are LED's good plant lights? A radiant heater you put in the soil? YAY!! I can't wait to hear more!

The correct led lights will provide huge benefits to lower light level growing months and will be very inexpensive to run although being costly at first. Combine them with the radiant heat in the soil and you have quite a system going on. I will find the correct led light for what you want to grow. Is it mostly tomatoes? Do you grow in the ground? This way the earth works as its own heat storage battery. If you have frost danger, you may want to insulate the sidewalls. Also there would be tremendous controls available with the leds and radiant heat system.

We are moving at the end of the year, so will experience all the upheaval that nesting in one spot for 18 years brings. On my list is a REAL greenhouse and a bigger garden. I want to grow for a year to figure out the climate and seasonal changes, then possibly ease into a CSA. Have just a few customers to start with so I don't overload myself, and gradually grow into where I want to be.

We are moving to the Tyler, Tx area and it is most famous for it's roses, but there are lots of agricultural greenhouses and starter trees and plants grown there. There is a company in a neighboring town that sells the pipe benders and instructions for greenhouses that brings the cost way down versus buying the complete kit. Here's a link if you are interested.

http://www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/index.aspx

There is no perma frost, but there is occasional snow, which delights my Northern friends as they laugh at me. We are idiots in snow.

The insoil radiant heaters are ok with getting watered? Your system sounds like the answer to a greenhouse dream. I want to start out with a small greenhouse, so maybe the cost won't be too bad.

Do you have growers using this system now? The pics you posted looks like one being built. keep posting pics, this is very interesting.

There is a project in Manitoba, Canada as well as in Europe. I know there is a large project taking place in Chile as well.

Generally clients are burying the panels 18" plus or minus below the surface. Some large scale growers use power equipment to work the soil so the want to be sure the electrical systems are deep enough to avoid.

For moisture, any of the wires are protected in a sleeve but I would not saturate or allow frost and moisture to be a constant threat. I will get you some more information later today.

Ron, on my ranch ( 20 acres) in Cal. "Great Central Valley" ( Fresno, Cal. area), I have several types of soil from eons of erosion of the mountains, red, yellow, grey, black, white and salt soils meandering about every 5-20 feet apart, over hardpan varying from on the surface to 5 feet deep. about 20 years ago, I had to use rippers, land planes, and earth movers to break up the hardpans and level the land for horse pasture. Cost was quite high. Cal. has the 6th largest economy in the world and produces a large portion of the food in the US as well as exports. Our area's winter temperatures range from lows of 34* to 17* with daytime highs only a few degrees higher from Nov. to mid Feb.. We have a month of solid FOG ( you do not see the sun at all) and the last few years annual rainfall between 6" - 9". Frost and freezing fog is common. Summer/ fall temps range from 90's* to 105* ( 110* tp 117* occationally). Crop as well as city water comes from Mountain (water from rain and snow melt) reservoirs and irrigation canals. Millerton lake reservoir is now only waist deep as of a few days ago). What would you estimate to be the cost of installing the panels 18" underground per acre ? What would be the estimated electric power bill be per month per acre during the cold months ? Drip or row irrigation for water ?

Wow, these are great questions with no simple answer. First, I do not know the cost of electricty at your location. 2nd, what temperature do you want to maintain? This is crop sensitive. The great thing about the electric radiant heat panels is the heat travels a distance but it means I can't just give you a price for an acre of coverage.

If you could supply me a sketch of your growing area that would be helpful. Is this out doors or in a greenhouse? For irrigation I would have to defer to someone else. I know drip gets it right to where you want it.

You can also use solar or wind energy to capture some of the electricity for heating the panels. A real good ag economist would have to do some number crunching.

What crops are you growing? Are you selling to markets or to your own customers? What are your higher dollar crops that you would prefer to have more of when no one else does?

Ron