ISHS Acta Horticulturae 148: III International Symposium on Energy in Protected Cultivation
DAMAGE TO CLIMATE CONTROL EQUIPMENT AND CROP CAUSED BY LIGHTNING |
| Authors: | Th.H. Gielen, W.Th.M. van Meurs |
| Abstract:
Lightning and lightning induction is the main cause of the malfunction of electronic climate controller applications in agriculture in the Netherlands (table 1). The situation in horticulture shows the same picture. In 98% of the cases known to the major insurance company for horticulture in the Netherlands only the equipment is damaged and not the crop. However, in those few casualties where the crop is also damaged, the money involved in it is much more than the money involved in repairing the damaged equipment in all the cases together. The explanation for the small number of cases with damage to the crop, can be found in the relatively slow reaction of the plantgrowth-process in greenhouses on malfunctioning control equipment, in comparison with other agricultural processes (table 2), giving the grower the possibility to switch over to manual control. Experts of insurance companies expect that the introduction on a large scale of fast reacting cultivation techniques like e.g. cultures on artificial substrates, hydroculture and also the introduction of energy saving measures, causing critical climate circumstances (high humidity), will decrease the response time of the overall growth-process on major malfunctioning of the controller equipment and in a dramatic way change the risk parameters involved. Since lightning and lightning induction is the main cause for failure in controller equipment, this paper tries to emphasize that more and better prevention measures should be taken, by improvements in the controller equipment hardware and the incoming circuit connections from the electric mains power distributor. | |
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