CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THERMAL ENVIRONMENT IN SLOPING GREENHOUSES

To improve vegetable production in a sloping-land, we investigated the thermal environments of sloping greenhouses, which were constructed on the sloping-land with 10 and 17 to 20 degrees.

Inside temperatures tended to be higher at the upper end than the lower end of the sloping greenhouse. The temperature gradient along the slope was larger in the daytime than at night. The temperature differences between inside and outside and temperature gradient along the slope were fairly small and constant at night. Seasonal changes were observed in the temperature difference and temperature gradient which tended to be small during the period when outside temperature was high.

Inside temperatures were constant near to the set temperature during the period when the heating was activated. The temperature gradient was observed, while it was fairly uniform to the vertical direction when the heating was set at 12. The temperature distribution was fairly uniform when the heating was set at 6.

When the sloping greenhouse was ventilated with side openings, inside temperatures decreased rapidly and uniformly to outside temperature. But inside temperature gradient still remained along the slope and to the vertical direction in ventilation with both ends.