Results After Using ChatGPT to Reorganize My Greenhouse Setups:
Last fall I fed ChatGPT all the info on two of my greenhouses and I provided detailed context prompts asking it to now only make my plants grow better but also to save me more money on electricity bills. It took many follow up refined prompts for it to give me a concise, logical & practical setup to go by. I did have to buy additional materials in addition to retuning my heating, lighting & ventilation parameters but the results were surprisingly good.
First thing I was advised to do is to add to the insulation around the greenhouses. This will keep them both warmer requiring less heating. I installed more insulated tarps to both… the hothouse where my tropicals are kept for 5 months of the year was easy because the tarps remain all year as the plants are taken outside when warm. The green house will be a pain because it’s exposed to full sun during the growing season so I gotta put up & pull down the insulation every year. Regardless, it must be done.
In the hothouse, I went on a dual heating schedule of 15°C during the night for 9 hrs & 12°C during the day (15hrs). The (newly upgraded) lights on/off cycle follows the same patter except it’s 10hrs at night & 14hrs during the day. The extra hour does a good job preheating of the greenhouses to I can save 1hr of the hotter heat setting. Both the light schedules are reversed for my greenhouses because the lights help warm the night temperatures better during the colder hours. Whilst the circulation fans run 24/7, the intake fan funs on 30 minute on/off cycles when the lights are off and they stay on when the lights are on. This will keep the lights cooled and also prevent too much cold air to come inside when the lights are off.
The greenhouse’s changes were minor, with the added insulation I was able to use only one heat source. I also added additional lights to use the freed-up energy load from the heat sources that I removed. Temperatures were kept to a minimum of 5°C and its light schedule was kept the same as the hothouse. I did one final watering in the beginning of December then left on a 6.5-week holiday abroad. My outdoor Wi-Fi security cameras (which I can access from anywhere) can see the lights go on at night so I knew the setup didn’t set off any breakers. The only questions were how much the electricity bill would be, and the condition of my plants because I’ve never been away for this long a period without tending to my greenhouses.
The results were quite impressive… even with the added lights and increased heating, the overall electricity cost was $25 cheaper a month. All but one of my plants fared splendidly… my lemon tree enjoyed the setup so much that it fruited which soaked up all the water in its pot and it almost died of dehydration (inside the hothouse). I had other citrus in the moderately warmed greenhouse that fruited as well but the relative low temperatures kept their water absorption to a minimum. It’s the first day of March here in Vancouver and the weather has been incredibly warm this winter season, so most of the plants inside the greenhouses are starting to bloom. So all-in-all, ChatGPT did a great job in helping me retool my greenhouse setups that gave me better results at a lower energy cost.
