"Your biggest long-term cost driver is decided before construction begins"
Source: VFD.com
Harvest Panel Systems, which manufactures and installs insulated metal panels for controlled environment facilities, used its presentation at the CEA and Indoor Farming conference to argue that the materials chosen at the design phase determine a facility's energy costs more than any subsequent operational decision. "Seventy percent of HVAC cost is determined by envelope performance, not just the insulation inside the rooms, but the envelope of the building itself," said Christian Campbell, Director of Facility Design at Harvest Panel Systems.
By its own account, it currently runs approximately 50 builds per year, has completed close to a million square feet in CEA projects over the last 12 months, and it also owns and leases around 100,000 square feet of indoor cultivation space in the US. "Conventional construction typically gets you anywhere from R13 to R20," Christian Campbell said, referring to the standard measure of thermal resistance.
"On a 10,000 square foot CEA facility, a fairly modest size, you could be saving $485,000 to $500,000 just from that one change at the very beginning of construction," Christian Campbell said. Bluelab introduces pH PenPlus, designed for continuity Up to 50% of a strawberry plant's sale price goes towards transport "There needs to be standardization and sharing of knowledge so that the industry can grow" Rethinking the net pot: Improving cube stability and root handling in NFT systems New high density float for horticulture introduced "Growers work with a single recipe for a season, while the crop's nutritional demand is changing" “Even minor environmental variations can affect active compound levels and commercial acceptance” Related Articles "Your biggest long-term cost driver is decided before construction begins" "Strong sanitation programs require more than just having the right chemicals in place" An artichoke, or an accessory?
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
