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Greenhouses, with the climate on record.

A greenhouse grows to a recipe of light, heat, humidity, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients. Independent sensors, energy meters and an outside weather station report to a record beside the climate computer, so growers can check the recipe, find faults early and account for energy and water.

Industry

Agriculture

Measurements

6

Sources cited

4

1. Agriculture · Greenhouses and controlled environment

   A recipe only as good as its sensors

   A greenhouse follows its recipe because a climate computer reads sensors and drives heating, vents, screens, lights and dosing. When one of those sensors drifts, the whole compartment drifts with it, and the crop shows it weeks later. Independent measurement beside the controller catches the fault while it is still cheap.

2. What is measured

   Climate, carbon dioxide, water and energy

   Ventilated sensors read temperature and humidity at crop height, others read carbon dioxide away from dosing outlets. Substrate sensors and drain meters follow water, conductivity and pH sensors follow nutrients, meters count heat, light and water, and an outside station measures the weather the greenhouse answers to.

   Instruments

   Climate sensors · Carbon dioxide · Substrate sensors · Conductivity and pH · Energy meters · Outside weather

3. The base node

   A second opinion beside the controller

   An industrial gateway reads the independent sensors and, read-only, the climate computer’s own values. The edge node signs every value, compares the two sets and flags a drifting controller sensor, and watches heating and ventilation for failure on cold and hot nights.

4. Radio and links

   Fibre out, wireless between the rows

   The site’s fixed broadband carries data and cameras to the office and the record. Inside, wireless reaches compartments without new cables between the rows, and battery sensors in the crop report over LoRaWAN so nothing trails across the paths of trolleys and workers.

   Links

   Fibre · Wi-Fi · LoRaWAN

5. How it works

   From a drifting sensor to a fix

   A climate computer’s humidity sensor starts reading low. The independent sensor beside it disagrees, the gateway passes both to the edge node, and the node raises a drift alert to the grower and the technician. The sensor is replaced, and the record keeps both readings and the fix.

6. From order to operation · Order

   Scope the compartments and the recipe

   The scope reads the site layout, the climate computer and its sensors, the fertigation system, energy supplies and the grower’s recipe. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the independent point plan, the link with the climate computer, the network design and a price per compartment and per service.

   Plan a deployment

7. From order to operation · Survey

   Measure where the crop lives

   Crews walk each compartment with the grower to find representative points at crop height, away from heating pipes, vents and dosing outlets. They locate the fertigation room, energy meters and a roof or mast site for the outside station, and check wireless coverage between the rows.

8. From order to operation · Permits

   Structures and the controller

   Anything fixed to the structure respects its design standard and the builder’s guidance. The link to the climate computer is read-only and agreed with its supplier and the grower, so independent measurement never changes the control. Data sharing with advisers is written into the contract.

9. From order to operation · Build

   Build beside the climate computer

   Sensors, the gateway, energy meters and the outside station are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. The gateway is configured to read the climate computer’s own values without writing to it. Each sensor is labelled with its compartment and its position.

   Open the Station Builder

10. From order to operation · Install

    Install without stopping the crop

    Crews install between crop operations, mounting ventilated climate sensors at crop height, placing substrate sensors in representative slabs, fitting conductivity and pH sensors on supply and drain, and mounting the outside station clear of the ridge. Every point is photographed for the record.

11. From order to operation · Commission

    Compare with the climate computer

    Each device proves its identity. Independent sensors are compared with reference instruments and with the climate computer’s own sensors, conductivity and pH with reference solutions, and energy meters with supply readings. Failure and condensation alerts are tested to the grower’s phone.

12. From order to operation · Operate

    Check the recipe every day

    Growers see each compartment’s climate, carbon dioxide and substrate water against the recipe, with the climate computer’s own readings beside them. A drifting controller sensor is flagged, failures raise alarms at once, and energy and water use are tracked per compartment and per crop.

13. From order to operation · Maintain

    Calibrate between crops

    Between crops, climate sensors are checked against a reference, carbon dioxide sensors recalibrated, conductivity and pH probes cleaned and checked with solutions, and the outside station cleaned. Every change is recorded, so crop-to-crop comparisons stay honest. Spares are kept on the bench, so a failed sensor is swapped the same day.

    Book field services

14. Data products

    For growers, technicians and partners

    Growers receive compartment climate against the recipe; technicians receive drift alerts; auditors receive fertigation records; site managers and energy partners receive energy and water accounts per crop. Each product carries the calibration of the sensors behind it, so crops can be compared across seasons and sites.

    See the data products

15. Evidence

    A recipe you can audit

    Every reading, calibration, alert and change is signed and kept. Practice follows FAO good agricultural practice for greenhouse crops, nutrient water quality follows FAO guidance, structures follow their design standard, and data is exchanged through open standards, so an adviser or auditor can check the recipe.

    Drawn against

    FAO Paper 217 · FAO Paper 29 · EN 13031-1 · OPC UA

16. What you get

    Agricultural field observatories

    Soil moisture profiles, micro-weather and evapotranspiration with irrigation thresholds per field. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for growers, agribusiness, irrigation districts, crop insurers. Scale: Farm to region. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.

    Talk to sales

17. Next step

    Plan greenhouses and controlled environment with us

    Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for greenhouses and controlled environment. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.

    Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio

01The place and its hazards

Where it runs, and what can go wrong.

Operating contextGreenhouses and vertical farms control their climate with a climate computer that drives heating, vents, screens, lighting, carbon dioxide dosing and fertigation. The structures are built to design standards, energy is a major cost, and growers follow good practice for water, nutrients and crop protection. Independent measurement checks the controller and the crop.

Hazards

• A failed sensor steering the climate computer wrong
• Heating or ventilation failure on a cold or hot night
• Disease favoured by condensation and high humidity
• Nutrient dosing errors in recirculating water
• Energy and water costs out of control

02What must be measured

What, where, how often, and under which rules.

Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.

03The observation stack

From one base unit to a network.

The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.

1. 01

   Base unit

   A compartment point: climate, carbon dioxide and substrate sensors on an industrial gateway beside the climate computer.

   Build a station →
2. 02

   Site

   A greenhouse: every compartment, the fertigation room, the energy meters and an outside weather station on one edge node and a fibre link.

   Plan a site →
3. 03

   Fleet

   Every site of a grower group run as one fleet, with one calibration process and one record.

   Managed offers →
4. 04

   Network

   Growers, advisers and energy partners exchange observations and energy records through open standards.

   The open protocol →

• 01Air quality monitor
• 02Soil probe
• 03Water quality sonde
• 04Energy and power-quality meter
• 05Compact weather station
• 06OT gateway (OPC UA, Modbus)
• 07Edge node (Wedge)
• 08Fibre terminal

Radio and links

Fibre

Glasshouse sites near towns usually have fixed broadband; fibre carries the site’s data and camera traffic.

Radio and links

Wi-Fi

Inside the glasshouse, wireless reaches compartments without new cabling between crop rows.

Radio and links

LoRaWAN

Battery sensors in the crop report without cables that get in the way of trolleys and workers.

Edge computeThe edge node compares independent sensors with the climate computer’s own and flags a drifting controller sensor, watches heating and ventilation for failure and raises condensation and disease-risk alerts.

PowerSensors and the node run on site mains with a battery for short outages; the alarm path keeps working when the site loses power.

04How it works

From the instrument to the product.

One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.

05From order to operation

Every step, from the first call to a running site.

The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.

1. 01 Order

   Scope the compartments and the recipe

   The scope reads the site layout, the climate computer and its sensors, the fertigation system, energy supplies and the grower’s recipe. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the independent point plan, the link with the climate computer, the network design and a price per compartment and per service. 1

2. 02 Survey

   Measure where the crop lives

   Crews walk each compartment with the grower to find representative points at crop height, away from heating pipes, vents and dosing outlets. They locate the fertigation room, energy meters and a roof or mast site for the outside station, and check wireless coverage between the rows.

3. 03 Permits

   Structures and the controller

   Anything fixed to the structure respects its design standard and the builder’s guidance. The link to the climate computer is read-only and agreed with its supplier and the grower, so independent measurement never changes the control. Data sharing with advisers is written into the contract. 4

4. 04 Build

   Build beside the climate computer

   Sensors, the gateway, energy meters and the outside station are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. The gateway is configured to read the climate computer’s own values without writing to it. Each sensor is labelled with its compartment and its position.

5. 05 Install

   Install without stopping the crop

   Crews install between crop operations, mounting ventilated climate sensors at crop height, placing substrate sensors in representative slabs, fitting conductivity and pH sensors on supply and drain, and mounting the outside station clear of the ridge. Every point is photographed for the record.

6. 06 Commission

   Compare with the climate computer

   Each device proves its identity. Independent sensors are compared with reference instruments and with the climate computer’s own sensors, conductivity and pH with reference solutions, and energy meters with supply readings. Failure and condensation alerts are tested to the grower’s phone.

7. 07 Operate

   Check the recipe every day

   Growers see each compartment’s climate, carbon dioxide and substrate water against the recipe, with the climate computer’s own readings beside them. A drifting controller sensor is flagged, failures raise alarms at once, and energy and water use are tracked per compartment and per crop.

8. 08 Maintain

   Calibrate between crops

   Between crops, climate sensors are checked against a reference, carbon dioxide sensors recalibrated, conductivity and pH probes cleaned and checked with solutions, and the outside station cleaned. Every change is recorded, so crop-to-crop comparisons stay honest. Spares are kept on the bench, so a failed sensor is swapped the same day.

06Data products and integration

What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.

Data products

• Compartment climate against the recipeGrowers and crop advisers
• Controller sensor drift alertsGrowers and climate computer technicians
• Fertigation quality recordsGrowers and auditors
• Energy and water accounts per cropSite managers and energy partners

Integration

• Climate computerIts values are read over Modbus or OPC UA, read-only, beside the independent sensors.
• Energy managementMeter readings are delivered to the energy system and to partners where agreed.
• Grower softwareObservations are served through OGC SensorThings with their positions and calibration.

Exchanged through OPC UA, Modbus, OGC SensorThings API.

07Questions buyers ask

Before you scope it.

Will this interfere with our climate computer?

No. The link is read-only; the climate computer keeps control.

Why measure twice?

A drifting sensor steers the whole compartment wrong. An independent sensor catches it before the crop does.

Does it work in vertical farms?

Yes. The same points measure each tier and room, on the site’s own network.

Can we see energy per crop?

Yes. Meters are read per compartment and the record totals them per crop and per season.

08Resources

The sources behind this page.

Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.

1. 1Good Agricultural Practices for greenhouse vegetable crops (FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper 217)Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations · 2013
2. 2Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO-No. 8)World Meteorological Organization
3. 3Water quality for agriculture (FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29 Rev. 1)Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations · 1985
4. 4EN 13031-1: Greenhouses, design and constructionEuropean Committee for Standardization

09Related

Use cases and solutions.

10Agriculture: specialized fields

Other fields of this industry.

Bring us the site.

Plan a deployment, configure a station, model it in the Studio or talk to sales. The form names who receives your details.