Greenhouse & Horticulture Climate Control

Fan-and-pad cooling, circulation fans, exhaust and heating for protected cropping — sized on air changes and on the crop's vapour pressure deficit, not on floor area.

  • 1,221products across this application
  • 535verified manufacturers
  • 6equipment groups

WhatHolding a growing envelope

Greenhouse climate control holds a growing envelope inside a crop-specific band of temperature, humidity and air movement across a full 24-hour cycle in which solar gain alone can swing the house by 20 °C. Growers work to vapour pressure deficit rather than relative humidity, because VPD is what actually governs transpiration and therefore growth.

WhoWho buys greenhouse climate equipment

Commercial growers of vegetables, soft fruit and cut flowers, greenhouse construction companies delivering turnkey structures, agritech integrators, and hydroponic and vertical-farm operators — the last group buying essentially the same equipment for a fully enclosed building.

WhereHot-arid houses and heated glass

Two very different markets. Hot and arid regions — the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia — where the problem is summer cooling and evaporative fan-and-pad systems do most of the work. And high-latitude glass, where the problem is winter heating and CO₂ enrichment. Many sites are remote with weak or intermittent grid supply, which is why solar-powered ventilation (136 products) is a live specification here rather than a novelty.

WhenBuying a season ahead of the weather

Sharply seasonal, and the seasons run ahead of the weather. Cooling equipment is specified and bought in late winter and spring for the coming summer; heating is bought in late summer for the coming winter. Missing the window means missing a growing season, not just a delivery date.

WhyAir movement is disease control

Air movement matters as much as temperature, and it is the part most often left out. Still air lets a saturated boundary layer build up on the leaf surface, which shuts down transpiration and creates exactly the conditions botrytis and powdery mildew need. Horizontal airflow fans that keep the whole house gently moving prevent a class of disease loss that no amount of cooling capacity will fix.

HowSizing pads, fans and heating

For evaporative cooling in a hot climate, size the exhaust fans to change the house air roughly once a minute, and set the pad area to give the correct face velocity — too fast and the air leaves the pad still dry, too slow and it arrives saturated and stagnant. Add circulation fans sized on house volume, independent of the cooling system, because they have to run when the vents are shut. Size heating on the coldest-night design temperature for the site, and check the corrosion specification: a greenhouse is a permanently humid, frequently sprayed environment.

Equipment this application needs

Axial Flow Fans Exhaust & circulation Axial Flow Fans666 The workhorse of the house — high volume against the low resistance of a pad wall, plus horizontal airflow duty between crop rows. Air Coolers Evaporative cooling Air Coolers84 Pad-and-fan and portable evaporative units. In dry climates they deliver a genuine 6–12 °C drop at a fraction of the energy of mechanical cooling. Exhaust Fans Humidity & heat purge Exhaust Fans70 Night-time moisture removal, which is what prevents condensation dripping onto the crop at dawn. Heating Equipment Frost & night heating Heating Equipment63 Holding the house above the crop's minimum on the coldest nights, sized to the site's design temperature. Gas Heaters Direct-fired heating Gas Heaters236 Widely used where the CO₂ from combustion is a benefit to the crop rather than a contaminant — but only with correctly specified equipment. Heat Pumps Efficient year-round Heat Pumps96 Heating and cooling from one machine, increasingly specified where electricity is available and fuel is not.

What to check before you order

Corrosion Resistant 121
Permanent high humidity plus fertiliser and pesticide spray — ordinary painted steel does not last.
Solar Powered 136
Practical for remote sites and for keeping circulation running through grid outages.
Energy Saving 770
Ventilation runs for thousands of hours per season, so fan efficiency compounds quickly.
380V 1,195
Three-phase for pad-wall fan banks on commercial-scale houses.
IP55 / IP68 159
Sealed motors and enclosures for a washdown and spray environment.

Products for this application

Questions buyers ask

How many exhaust fans does a greenhouse need?
Size on air changes, not on floor area alone. For evaporative fan-and-pad cooling in a hot climate the working rule is roughly one complete air change per minute — multiply house volume by that rate and divide by the fan's airflow at the static pressure the pad wall actually imposes, which is well below its free-air rating.
Does evaporative cooling work in a humid climate?
Much less well. Evaporative cooling converts sensible heat into latent heat, so its capacity depends entirely on how much moisture the incoming air can still absorb. In a dry climate a 6–12 °C drop is realistic; in a humid coastal climate the same equipment may deliver 2–3 °C while pushing house humidity to levels the crop will not tolerate.
Why are circulation fans specified separately from ventilation fans?
Because they do a different job at a different time. Ventilation exchanges house air with outside air; circulation keeps air moving inside the house when the vents are closed — on cold nights and in winter — to break up the humid boundary layer at the leaf surface and stop temperature stratifying between floor and roof.

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Tell us about your greenhouse & horticulture climate control project

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