Estimating the impact of crops on peak loads of a Building-Integrated Agriculture space

Abstract

In a building-integrated agriculture (BIA) space, peak loads must be estimated to size HVAC equipment in order to maintain indoor air conditions that enhance crop growth. However, the estimation of the rates of heat gain/loss induced by the crops and their impact on heating and cooling loads have only been sparsely addressed. The present study proposes a workflow to estimate the impact of crops on a BIA space peak loads. The building, BIA space and crops–lettuces–are modeled in TRNSYS 18, while loads for design day conditions are assessed by completing a parametric study that varied the cultivated density (CD), the indoor air conditions (temperature and humidity) and the leaf area index (LAI) of the crops. Compared to the baseline peak loads, the estimated sensible heating and latent cooling peak loads of the BIA space at the highest CD for a LAI of 2.1 are 3.6 to 3.7 and 1.1 to 2.1 times higher, while being 13.3 to 14.0 and 6.0 to 9.9 times higher for a LAI of 10. The results show the importance of considering crops in estimating peak loads to size HVAC equipment and promote crop yield.