Smart Greenhouse IoT Solutions: What to Include and How to Automate

The smart greenhouse market, projected to surpass $3.3 billion by 2030, revolutionizes how farmers cultivate crops and nurture plant life. How so? Unlike traditional methods that rely heavily on human involvement, automated greenhouse IoT solutions offer increased energy efficiency, higher production yields, and a significant labor cost reduction.

But how to automate a greenhouse and reap the above benefits? Join WebbyLab as we delve into the essential components and reveal the role of IoT in greenhouse automation. As an experienced IoT vendor, we’ll guide you through all the intricacies, using our smart greenhouse solution built on the 2Smart Standalone automation platform as an example.

Some of the Major Challenges Faced by Traditional Greenhouses

Traditional greenhouses lack something fundamental to their productivity and efficiency — tech innovations. They are typically posed with such challenges as:

• Difficulties in maintaining optimal temperature levels within the greenhouse environment. Fluctuations can happen, causing temperatures to soar or fall beyond the desired range, threatening the plants’ health and growth
• High humidity leads to excessive plant transpiration, potentially slowing their development.
• Water vapor condensation restricts light penetration and increases the risk of diseases caused by fungal growth
• Water evaporation from moist soil affects moisture balance, water consumption, and irrigation

Recognizing these obstacles, WebbyLab has a viable solution. Using IoT in greenhouse management solves the above issues swiftly. What matters is such a system’s proper implementation, which our experts can do. Having successfully deployed a smart greenhouse based on our 2Smart Standalone automation platform, we know how to address these challenges and increase your yields.

Monitoring the greenhouse temperature, humidity, and lighting through 2Smart Standalone

Benefits of Using IoT Solutions in Greenhouse Automation

Let’s now discuss how exactly the Internet of Things automation can enhance your farming capacities. Look at the following core benefits of smart greenhouse solutions:

• Proper environment for better yields. Leverage IoT to tailor the greenhouse’s conditions to the specific needs of your plants. Modify the climate and create a nutrition-sensitive atmosphere to improve crop quality.
• Optimized water usage. With smart sensors and automated systems, you can deliver water precisely to plants based on their requirements. It ensures efficient irrigation and reduces waste as a bonus.
• Better resource control. IoT devices and monitoring systems allow you to closely observe and manage energy consumption, ventilation, and other greenhouse resources. As a result, you reduce costs and increase sustainability.
• Automated plant growth monitoring. Use sensors to track air temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, and light — and all of it remotely. Modify your greenhouse parameters to ensure your plants get the optimal conditions for their growth.

How Greenhouse Automation Works: Key Components

Creating an automated greenhouse with IoT is no small feat. It requires integrating several components that harmoniously work together to maintain proper growing conditions. But first, let’s explore the key parameters to track in intelligent greenhouses:

• Air temperature and humidity. These are essential aspects you need to track as part of IoT based smart greenhouse automation. Monitoring these parameters enables you to adjust ventilation, heating, or cooling systems for favorable plant growth conditions.
• Air CO2 levels. Controlling this parameter is critical as it has a significant role in plant photosynthesis. With IoT technology in place, you can maintain a sufficient supply of CO2 to ensure your crops have resources for proper development.
• Soil temperature and humidity. It’s another element crucial for your plants’ health, especially their root development and nutrient uptake. Tracking these parameters allows you to adjust fertilization, heating, and irrigation systems for consistent soil hydration and temperature.
• Lighting level and duration. Monitoring these parameters helps regulate photosynthesis, particularly given that different plant species have specific lighting requirements. With IoT automation, you can simulate natural sunlight conditions for the best yields.

Now that you know what parameters to observe in your automated greenhouse project, look at how exactly you can keep those indicators within specified limits without manual labor. These are the possible greenhouse components: 

• Heating/cooling system includes automated heaters, air conditioners, and fans to regulate the temperature and maintain the desired range.
• Ventilation system controls airflow and fresh air exchange, ensuring optimal CO2 levels and preventing excessive heat or humidity buildup.
• Irrigation system delivers water to plants based on soil moisture levels, ensuring efficient water usage and preventing overwatering or drought.
• Fertilizer system accurately administers the appropriate nutrients to plants.
• Lighting system includes timers and intensity controls to provide supplemental or artificial light for better plant growth during insufficient sunlight.

Top IoT Smart Solutions in Greenhouse Automation

Knowing about the greenhouse’s components and parameters to track is only half the way to full automation. Another thing to consider in detail is how IoT is used in greenhouses. Let’s explore some of the top use cases:

• Greenhouse climate control systems. These universal solutions allow you to modify environmental parameters like temperature, humidity, lighting, and ventilation. Such IoT systems use sensors for real-time remote monitoring of all the conditions we mentioned. You can set thresholds for each parameter, and the climate control solution will automatically adjust them accordingly. For example, if the temperature rises above a set point, the cooling system activates to lower it.
• Remote greenhouse monitoring systems. IoT devices allow you to manage your greenhouse without manual intervention. As in the use case above, you can track all critical parameters and change them through web interfaces or mobile applications from anywhere, anytime. Additionally, you can set up notifications to get updates on occurring events, like equipment malfunctions or deviations from desired parameters.
• Autonomous smart devices. Other applications of IoT in greenhouse management involve using standalone devices for covering specific activities within your facility. For example, if you need to improve your irrigation practices, you may implement IoT-based irrigation devices. Similarly, you can employ only smart lighting sensors for precise control over the level and duration of lighting in your greenhouse.

WebbyLab Experience Using IoT in Greenhouse Automation

With more than four years of experience in the Internet of Things field, WebbyLab has delivered many remarkable projects. One such success is the development of our innovative controller designed for a smart greenhouse using IoT. We seamlessly integrated it with our versatile 2Smart Standalone automation system, harnessing its flexibility and IoT standards compliance.

Here are just a few things that our greenhouse controller can help you automate:

Several activities that WebbyLab’s greenhouse controller automates.

You can automate the abovementioned greenhouse processes in several stages. Here’s how WebbyLab does this:

1. We deploy a mini-computer (typically Ubuntu OS, Intel Core i3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) with our 2Smart Standalone system on a Schneider Electric switchboard.
2. Then, we connect the Modbus bus with two blocks of 8 relays and an 8-channel analog sensor input reader.
3. WebbyLab experts link lighting, watering, ventilation lines, and a temperature sensor to the bus relay.
4. We also use a relay block with NO and NC contacts for controlling actuators.
5. After that, we integrate a Zigbee gateway for wireless connectivity of air temperature, humidity, leakage, pressure, and light level sensors.
6. Our team also leverages a wired irrigation tap connected via Zigbee and controlled through the Modbus bus.
7. Finally, we incorporate a touch screen and the 2Smart Standalone mobile application for offline and remote control capabilities.

On top of that, you can configure various automation scenarios using our solution.

It gives you the flexibility to not only turn on and off your devices remotely but do this according to the specific parameters you indicate. For example, you may configure it to turn on the lighting system automatically during the evening hours or set up a schedule for fertilizer supply.

Want to learn more about our experience in automation? Make sure you check out our post on smart greenhouse solutions using IoT.

Turn You Greenhouse Smart with WebbyLab’s IoT Expertise

An automated greenhouse with IoT is a significant shift in agriculture. It offers unprecedented control over environmental conditions, leading to optimized resources, lower labor costs, and better yields.

As you dive into greenhouse automation, remember that WebbyLab experts are ready to assist you with their expertise and innovative solutions. Leverage our profound background in IoT, and don’t hesitate to contact us for a detailed consultation.