• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.287-294
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• 2013

Purpose: Greenhouses for a protected horticulture covered with a plastic or glass are easy to have weakness in a heat loss by deterioration, damage, poor construction, and so on. To grasp the vulnerable points of heat loss of the greenhouses is important for heating energy saving. In this study, an on-site heat loss audit and energy consulting system were developed for an efficient energy usage of a greenhouse. Method: Developed system was mounted with infrared thermal and visual cameras to grasp the heat loss from the greenhouse quickly and exactly, and a trial calculation program of heating load of greenhouse to provide farmers with the information of heating energy usage. Results: Developed system could print out the reports about the locations and causes of the heat losses and improvement methods made up by an operator. The mounted trial calculation program could print out the information of the period heating load and fuel cost according to the conditions of greenhouse and cultivation. The program also mounted the databases of the information on the 13 horticultural energy saving technologies developed by the Korea Rural Development Administration and simple economic analysis sub-program to predict the payback period of the technologies. Conclusion: The developed system was expected to be used as the basic equipment for an instructors of district Agricultural Technology and Extension Centers to conduct the energy consulting service for the farmers within the jurisdiction.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.67-73
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• 2010

Unlike Urban building, horticultural facilities has a lot of heat loss through plastic or glass covering material which could be much influential to growing plant and consuming energy for heating greenhouse. In many cases, heat loss from a break of cover, a gap of joint sealing, the entrance to greenhouse and windows for ventilation are the main factors considered in calculating the heating load for horticultural facilities. however the normal observation through human eye and digital camera could not recognize where the heat loss occurred. but the infrared thermal image camera with detecting thermal difference could be very effective for noticing heat loss by analyzing infrared thermal image. In this study, greenhouse structure, covering material, internal and external provisions for Horticultural facilities were surveyed in different sites and Infrared thermal camera shooting and image analysis were performed for auditing heat loss from cultivation facilities The results from this study were that unexpected heat loss had been noticed in 7 representative cases of greenhouse such as side wall covered with single or double plastic, and the joint of horizontal thermal curtain, roof without horizontal thermal curtain, entrance to greenhouse, windows for ventilation. the most important factors for keeping heat energy were whether the horizontal thermal curtain with multifold thermal material was installed or not. The internal or external covering using multifold thermal curtain proved to be the most effective ways to keep heat energy from losing through heat transmission, heat radiation. from inside to outside the horticultural facilities.

• Solar Energy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.10-17
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• 1990

Short-term tests were conducted on a house at KIER, Daejon for its thermal performance evaluation. The test procedure and data analysis were made according to the PSTAR method. Each test period was 3 days during which the building was unoccupied. The data measured with 8 channels were used to renormalize an audit based simulation model of the house. The following are the key parameters obtained in the present analysis: 1) the building loss coefficient(skin conductance plus infiltration conductance during coheating period); 2) the effective building heat capacity; and 3) the effective solar gain. An estimation of total heat required to maintain a standard level of comfort during a typical winter season is also calculated on the basis of the renormalized simulation model and typical long term weather data.