Solar powered system using a PIC microcontroller

to control the Temperature, Humidity and light

intensity in a greenhouse

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Farming is the primeval industry that humankind began after conceived on earth, it has got an
extended history amongst numerous industries and it is firmly connected to the humankind
development (Duffy, 2013). Nine billion hungry people will live on planet earth by 2050, as indicated
by the United Nations estimation (Barklam and Newell, 2015). Alongside an expanding population, the
world confronts environmental change, rising petroleum derivative costs, biological community
degradation, water and land shortage, all of which are making today's food production techniques
continuously unsustainable, according to the Latest Agricultural Technology Innovation (Kachan,
2012).

There is an advantage to this fluctuation and food instability. On the other hand the need for solution
is driving people to look for new agricultural improvements, in particular indoor cultivation, in order
words controlled environment agriculture (CEA). CEA is a technology centered method concerning
food production, where all environmental parameters such as temperature humidity and light can be
controlled. The reason for CEA is to offer protection and to uphold the ideal developing conditions
during the developing process of the crop. Production occurs inside an enclosed structure such as
greenhouse or building. CEA improves the utilization of assets, such as work force, capital, energy
and space. (Jensen and Malter, 2006)

This approach toward food production can be easily used for the growth of various plants throughout
the year regardless of the season by providing the favorable conditions required for their growth.
Therefore greenhouses are particularly required to maintain the natural environmental conditions of a
plant, at all time. (Dalpe, 2003)

The earliest recognized CEA production in documented history was appointed to the Roman Emperor,
Tiberius Caesar (14 - 37 A.D.). Caesar's personal physician informed him that he required a
cucumber a day for exact fitness. Convenient plant beds were placed outdoor during good climate
conditions, and brought indoors during bad climate conditions. By 1670 greenhouse structures like
those utilized today were introduced. These early greenhouses used wood outlines with either glass
or oiled paper. During this period an interest in CEA led to several small greenhouse operations that
concentrated primarily on vegetables and herbs, such system often involved a wide variety of crops
within the same air space. (Dalrymple, 1973)

The two basic types of greenhouse structures are freestanding (detached) and connected (attached).
Freestanding structures can be made in several frame styles. The even span (gabled) frame is
commonly used. The angle and width of its roof are equal. This frame type can be lengthened. It has
more usable space than other types and promotes good air circulation and maintains even
temperatures in the greenhouse. The uneven span frame, with one roof side longer than the other, is
used if the land’s slope is not too steep. This structure is positioned on hillsides with southern
exposure. It captures more of the low light during winter than the even span greenhouses (Pylarinos.
2014). The high Gothic arch frame provides ample headroom and is used primarily to grow potted
crops and spring flowering annuals. The Quonset frame, developed during World War II, is extremely
simple to build and efficiently designed, but its circular frame lowers the sidewall height, which limits
headroom and storage space. The design of the A-frame provides more space along the sidewalls,
which promotes good air circulation (Marshall. 2016). Figure1 illustrates each of these frame types.

Figure 1. Frame Types

Connected structures occupy less land and have no sidewalls; therefore fewer materials are needed
for construction. Because there are no walls where the gutters are, more interior space is available
than in several freestanding structures. Less energy is necessary to heat and cool the greenhouse
because the exposed wall surface area is reduced. But being connected to another building makes it
tougher to apply insecticides that produce vapors, gas, smoke, or fumes and to zone heat to specific
plants. (Marshall. 2015)

As a plant develops, it experiences many transformations, its development is solely dependent on the
environmental conditions. Greenhouse structure has a very complex system, any trivial change in one

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of the climatic parameter will have harmful impact on other climatic parameters, and similarly it will
affect the development process of plant. Therefore continuous tracking and manipulation on these
parameters is required for the proper growth of the plant. (Zabeltitz, 2010)

Temperature, humidity and light are the three utmost important variables that cultivators have to focus
on. In this day and age farmers require more user friendly platform to deal and monitor these factors
in order to increase crop yields. In general greenhouse structure can be separated into two
fundamental sections that interact: internal atmosphere and soil conditions. (Celebrate Outdoor Living,
2008)

For this proposal the soil condition will not be discussed, it will solely concentrate on the internal
atmosphere of the greenhouse.

Temperature is defined as the level of coldness or hotness of a material. Temperature impacts the
majority of the plant development process including transpiration, absorption, photosynthesis,
respiration and blossoming. The evolution of any crop plant is suggestively affected by temperature.
Every species of plant has a range of temperature run in which they can grow. Underneath this range,
procedures essential for life stops, ice structures appear inside the tissue obstructing water essential
for lifecycle. Over this range, critical plant enzymes turn out to be inactive and growth of plant stops.
Therefore careful monitoring and controlling of temperature is crucial in a greenhouse environment.
(Devlin, 1975)

Humidity is characterized as the measure of water vapor noticeable all around. Warm air has the
ability to hold more water vapor than cool air. Humidity is likewise an imperative parameter for plants
development since it partly controls the moisture loss from the plant. The leaves of plants have small
pores, CO2 enters the plants through these pores, and oxygen and water leave through them.
Transpiration rates diminish relatively to the quantity of humidity noticeable in the air. This is due to
the fact that water diffuses from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration.
Because of this phenomenon, plants developing in a dry room will most probably lose its moisture
overtime. (Miller, 2001)

When the difference in humidity is extreme, damage can be much more intense. Plants exposed to
this type of environment, frequently shed flower buds or flowers die soon after opening. Excessive
humidity can also have an effect on the development of a plant, high humidity can likewise influence
the advancement of plant. Under exceptionally humid atmospheres, parasitic diseases such as fungal
are well on the way to spread, on top of that the air ends up plainly soaked with water vapor which in
the long run constrains transpiration. Plants that are subjected to high moist condition for a long
period of time may endure deficiencies, hence monitoring the humidity also come to be crucial criteria.
(Mason SJ, 2006)

Every living thing requires energy to grow, mankind and animals acquire energy from food. However
plants acquire energy from sunlight through a procedure called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the

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procedure by which plants, a few microorganism and some protistans utilize energy from daylight to
create glucose from water and carbon dioxide. (Edmond et al. 1978)

Light influences the development of individual organs of the whole plant in direct ways. The most
noticeable impact can be seen when a plant is growing in ordinary light and in the general darkness.
Plants growing in darkness will have a tall and spindling stem, little leaves, and both leaves and stem
are light yellow, because of the absence of chlorophyll. Plants growing in shade rather than darkness
demonstrate a different reaction. Moderate shading has a tendency to diminish transpiration greater
than it does photosynthesis. Subsequently, shaded plants might be taller and have bigger leaves in
light of the fact that the water supply inside the developing tissues is better (Downs, 1996). If proper
attention is not paid to this factor, the growth of the plant is affected.

Cooling and heating systems are two most notable costs involving a greenhouse operation. Heating is
normally provided by consuming non-renewable energy sources (diesel, fuel oil, fluid oil, gas) which
increment carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, or by utilizing electric radiators, which consumes a great
amount of electricity.(Gerhard, 2015)

The proposal endorses the usage of solar energy, as an alternative source of electricity to minimize
the costs, reduce global warming and therefore help preventing climate change. Over the most recent
couple of years, solar energy has been advanced seriously because of both innovative improvements
in technology and government policies, strong on sustainable power source improvement and use. On
the other hand solar based technology don't require fuel, they have low carbon discharge, less
payback time, long term solar resources, and they regularly require little support or maintenance.
(Thomas et al, 2001).

The greenhouse industry has benefited from technological expansions over time and its future is
optimistic. Thanks to developments in building materials and equipment, greenhouse operations have
become more sophisticated. And because of the aid of plant scientists who are researching
biotechnological improvements in fruit and vegetables, the consumer can anticipate more nutritive and
higher quality food in the future. (Marshall. 2016).

1.3 Problem Statement

The main responsibilities in greenhouse construction is to optimize the conditions for plant
development, a change in one environmental parameter will cause another parameter to change,
affecting the production output, and eventually causing the crops death, thus greenhouse must be
constantly monitored to ensure optimal conditions for the crop.

1.4 Objectives

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The main objective of the proposal is to design a control system to monitor and automatically adjust
the environmental parameters inside a greenhouse. There are four general steps to be taken into
consideration to properly design the control system:

Investigate measurable quantities crucial for the crop production.

 It is essential to effectively identify the parameters that will be measured by the controller's
information procurement interface, and how they are to be measured.

Identify a control approach.

 An imperative component bearing in mind in a control system is the control approach that is to
be followed. The least complex approach is to utilize threshold values that will directly
influence the incitation of the device.

Investigate the hardware and software to be utilized.

 Hardware should dependably follow the choice decision of the software, with the hardware
required being supported by the software chose. In addition to practical capacities, the
selection of the control hardware must incorporate factors such as cost, reliability, previous
experience and support.

Investigate ways to diminish the environmental footmark of the proposal.

 Finding ways to diminish the environmental footmark of the proposal it is really important
because it helps prevent climate change.

1.5 Significance of the study

Students
 It will benefit the students not only by educating them on the importance of environment
monitoring in a greenhouse, but also give the awareness of the existence of such technology
and will act as a guidance for future research

Farmers
 Farmers will benefit immensely from utilizing this proposed system, commercial farmers will
be able to completely commit to delivery schedules and supply contracts, the system totally
eliminates external environment factors such as disease, pest or predator attacks, it optimizes
the crop yield, and the most important every season is harvest.

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Homes and offices
 The proposed system can be implemented on houses, offices, laboratories and so on, due to
the capability it has of maintain and adjusting climatic parameters.

Environment
 By utilizing renewable energy resource, this proposal is environmentally friendly, decreasing
carbon emissions to zero, it does not stop climate change but it helps avert it.

1.6 Project plan

 Draft a comprehensive literature review.

 Find the appropriate electrical components to be used in the proposal and defend their choice
of use.

 Simulate and test the components, to ensure they meet the required design specification.

 Separate development strategies of the circuitry will be used to guarantee the best system for
the design

 Simulation and test for the system functionality will be made, for the different circuits making
up the system.

 After the complete assessment of the circuit and corrections made, the successful testing of
the simulated model will lead to the building of the complete device.

1.7 Budget

An estimated budget is outlined in table 1 below

Table 1: Project budge

Product Cost in Rand

Travel Expenses R 200

Literature study (obtain journal articles) R 700

Simulation Software R 40

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 Electronic Components Needed R 1000

Printing R 40

Miscellaneous R 500

Solar Panel R 85

Total R 2565

1.8 Time Schedule

The estimated timeframe and program for this project is illustrated in table 2 below.

Table 2 Project time schedule

Design of a Solar powerd system using PIC

microcontroller to measure temperature, humidity 2017
and light intensity in a greenhouse

Activity START FINISH MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
Choosing Topic 01-Mar 03-Mar
Gathering Information 04-Mar 07-Mar
Writing project proposal 08-Mar 02-Apr
Choosing Software 04-Apr 05-Apr
Simulation Model 07-Apr 15-May
Presentation of the Bill of material 18-May 23-May
Writing Thesis 25-May 30-Jul
Building of a Working Prototype 23-Aug 13-Sep
Submission and finalizing research 04-Oct 11-Oct

1.9 Summary

This section introduces the foundation of the project, the existing technology the beneficiaries and
also the reason for the project outlined. It additionally demonstrate the objective, the project plan and
the estimation of the proposal budget. The writing of the literature review will be carried out on the
second part of the project.

2 Bibliography

Below is a list of all the references quoted and consulted within this project.

List of references consulted

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 Celebrate Outdoor Living. 2008. Major Components of a Greenhouse. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.garden.com/garden-articles/greenhouse-basics-part-2-major-components-of-a-
greenhouse/68/. [Accessed 3 March 2017].

 Dalpe, S, 2003. Management of the Greenhouse Environment. Agriculture and Forestry,

[Online]. 3, 67. Available
at: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/opp2902 [Accessed 6 March
2017].

 Dalrymple, D,G, 1973. Controlled environment agriculture : a global review of greenhouse

food production. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research
Service.

 DEVLIN R. 1975. Plant Physiology. New York, NY: D. Van Nostrand Company. 600 p.

 Downs, R.J, 1996. Light and plants: a series of experiments demonstrating light effects on
seed germination, plant growth, and plant development. 1st ed. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept.
of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service

 Duffy, R, 2013. Good Agricultural Practices for greenhouse vegetable crops. 4th ed. Rome:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Plant Production and Protection
Division.

 EDMOND JB, SENN TL, AMDREWS FS, HALFACRE RG. 1978. Fundamentals of
Horticulture. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, Inc. p. 87-130.

 Gerhard, S.H, 2015. Renewable Heating and Cooling. 1st ed. Germany: Woodhead
Publishing.

 Jensen M.H. and Malter A.J. 2006. Protected Agriculture: A Global Review. The International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. 1818 H Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20433. World Bank Technical Paper ISSN 0253-7494. ISBN 0-8213-2930-8

 Kachan, C,O 2012. Latest Agricultural Technology Innovation. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.kachan.com/report/agricultural-cleantech-technology-innovation report?
utm_content=&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3A%2F
%2F. [Accessed 7 March 2017].

 Marshall, R, 2016. How to Build Your Own Greenhouse: Designs and Plans to Meet Your
Growing Needs. 1st ed. El Dorado, Kansas: Storey Publishing.

 Marshall, R, 2015. Garden Projects: 25 Easy-to-Build Wood Structures & Ornaments. 1st ed.
Kansas: Countryman Press

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 MASON SJ. 2006. Dessication-tolerant plants in dry environments. In: Amils R, Ellis-Evans C,
Hinghofer-Szalkay H, editors. 2007. Life in Extreme Environments. Dordrecht, Netherlands:
Springer. p. 269-279.

 MILLER GT Jr. 2001. Environmental Science: Working With the Earth. 8th ed. Pacific Grove,
CA: Brooks/Cole. 549 p

 Patrick Barkham and Chris Newell. 2015. In 2050 there will be 9 billion people on earth. How
will we feed them. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/13/agriculture-farming-food-addiction-
meat-harvest-hungry-world. [Accessed 2 March 2017].

 Pylarinos, L, 2014. Ultimate Guide to Greenhouse Gardening for Beginners: How to Grow

Flowers and Vegetables Year-Round in Your Greenhouse. 2nd ed. Washington DC:
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

 Thomas, Andrew L. and Richard J. Crawford, Jr. (2001). Performance of an energy-efficient,

solar-powed greenhouse in southwest Missouri. Southwest Missouri Agricultural Research
and Education Center 2001 Research Report. University of Missouri-Columbia.

 Zabeltitz, C.V, 2010. Integrated Greenhouse Systems for Mild Climates: Climate Conditions,
Design, Construction, Maintenance, Climate Control. 1st ed. Germany: Springer Berlin
Heidelber.

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