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Prevention

Dutch Strawberry Grower Marcel Dings of Brookberries Urges Early Action on Gas Phaseout

Dutch greenhouse horticulture has the ambition to become climate neutral by 2040. Marcel himself has already taken many measures. He shared his experience and vision of the future with us.
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Climate Risk,

Make the right choices before construction

Quality and continuity go hand in hand. Everyone knows greenhouse businesses that have experienced a fire or other business damage. You then see that the consequences can be severe. Short circuits, lighting problems, and disruptions from the lighting installation are the main causes of fires in the greenhouse sector, with flammable screen cloths acting as potential spreaders. Read our tips on how to deal with risks.
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Building & installations,

This is how you can prevent greenhouse gases causing growth retardation

In the winter, air vents in greenhouses are seldomly used. Incorrect adjustment or use of equipment can lead to an accumulation of harmful greenhouse gases. What are the possible negative effects of toxic gases in your greenhouse? In this article, we will explain how you can prevent greenhouse gases causing growth retardation or even damage or loss of crop due to toxic greenhouse gasses.
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Operation & maintenance,

Proper maintenance reduces the chance of downtime

If your CHP or medium-voltage system fails, your entire business will come to a standstill. Proper maintenance reduces the chance of downtime.
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Operation & maintenance,

The importance of greenhouse roof maintenance

Risk specialist Olaf van Marrewijk: "Greenhouses need regular maintenance. Loose or weak connections and wear on components can greatly reduce the storm resistance of a greenhouse. The majority of greenhouses in Canada have tempered glass without fins, and this is increasingly the case in the Netherlands as well. Regular inspections of your greenhouse can help identify potential issues, allowing you to address them before they become larger problems. We are happy to share practical examples with you, so you know what to look for during your inspection rounds."
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Building & installations, Operation & maintenance

Hagelunie can provide guidance on performing maintenance

Greenhouses are standing for longer periods and being used more intensively. Storms, rain, and frost can have an impact on the quality of your greenhouse or commercial building. Therefore, it is important to regularly inspect your greenhouse or building. Pay attention to washed-away soil around your greenhouse, pipe subsidence, broken panes, and leaks.
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Operation & maintenance,

What is the condition of your hot water storage tank and is it still free of any leakage?

Just outside your premises is often the tank for storage of millions of liters boiling water. Having a functioning tank is key to keeping your business at peak efficiency.
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Operation & maintenance,

How you can keep a drain water disinfector functioning optimally

Did you know there are risks associated with the reuse of drain water? Viruses and fungi which are present in the drain water can be spread throughout the greenhouse when recirculated. The attention for prevention and control of viruses such as ToBRFV has increased in the recent years. Good prevention also includes disinfection of drain water and maintenance of the drain water disinfector.
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Operation & maintenance,

Maintenance is Key

When you invest in new or replace existing water silos, it is important to understand the added security available and have a regular inspection schedule of these silos during their lifetime. Silos used for the storage of rainwater and feed water are a must in the horticulture industry. Hundreds of cubic meters of water can be stored efficiently, but there is a danger in this.
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Building & installations, Operation & maintenance

This is how you can ensure a good and constant climate in your greenhouse

In greenhouse horticulture, climate systems have grown into a complex whole of high-tech subsystems with heat pumps, CHPs, heat exchangers and cold and heat storage tanks. The quality of the feed water is one of the most important factors for the service life of these systems. We advise you to look into this together with your installer.
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Operation & maintenance,

What can you do to minimise this risk?

Transformers are an important link in the continuity of your lighting installation. Make sure you have a backup.
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Building & installations, Operation & maintenance

How can you safely embed this in your organisation?

In more and more countries, the demand for new technologies to limit fossil fuel dependence is increasing. New techniques lead to new risks. How can you safely embed this in your organisation?
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Business Tips, Building & installations

A regular check from the start is important to collect data

Almost every modern veggie greenhouse uses a CHP to produce electricity, heat and CO2. A crucial part of the installation is the generator. Regular monitoring of the generator increases the continuity of the CHP.
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Building & installations, Operation & maintenance

Streamlining Precision: Introducing Hortivation Point for Enhanced Greenhouse Operations

It’s helpful for greenhouse builders, installers and suppliers of equipment and data services to have a standardized reference point for (automatic) positioning in greenhouses. The same applies to growers who use these greenhouses.
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Business Tips, Operation & maintenance

Unlocking Growth Potential: Physee's Innovative Glass Coating Enhances PAR Transmission and Beyond

Start-up company Physee discovered a way to increase PAR transmission of glass to 107% by adjusting a specific coating to the glass. A second coating could add heat production at the same time.
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Building & installations,

Harnessing Heat: Exploring Phase Change Solutions for CO2 Reduction in Horticulture

Dutch horticulture presently emits 4.6 Megatons of CO2 per year. This has to be reduced to zero in 2030. Perhaps the principle of phase change can help in achieving this objective.
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Operation & maintenance,

Ensuring structural integrity with glasshouse identification plates

The European glasshouse standards demand the builder to attach an identification plate well visible on one of the posts presenting the design conditions. These conditions will be used to re calculate the new loads and design adaptations to make the switch possible.
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Building & installations,

Mitigating Explosion Risks in Flue Gas Cleaners for Horticultural CHP Systems

Ever since early 2000 CHP has been a common appearance in horticulture to provide heat, power and CO2. Unfortunately, on a regular basis explosions appear in the chambers between the engine and the flue gas cleaner due to exhaust gases that are not fully burnt. An explosion safety can save you the investment in a new cleaner.
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Building & installations,

Awareness is the best remedy

Botnet, ransomware, phishing, DDOS, trojan horse. All examples of methods hackers use to get access to your systems, to blackmail you, or to simply ruin your computer files. It’s all called cybercrime. Is it really a threat and what can you do against it?
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Ground cover solutions for enhanced safety

New screens (energy and or shading) in greenhouses must be of fire retardant quality. With the appliance of these climate screens a huge step was taken in fire safety of greenhouses.
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Operation & maintenance, Building & installations

Check the CHP more often

Recent observations amongst Hagelunie clients show an increase in the number of damages to a CHP closely after having the 30,000 hours revision or a big overhaul. At this stage no explicit reason is found but attention is needed.
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Operation & maintenance,

Assessing greenhouse suitability for crop gutters and snow loads

Sometimes you hear growers talking about swapping the load for snow for the load of crop gutters. After all: the largest load of crop and gutter will be in summertime and obviously there will be no snow in summer. Although the train of thought is not strange, this is a mistake!
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Building & installations,

This is why you have to maintain a sag in the crop wire in every section of your greenhouse

Around october/november many crop seasons are in their final stages. Old crops are being removed, greenhouses cleaned and preparations for the new season are taking off. It might be tempting to tighten the crop wire. But be aware! This can have a devastating effect on your greenhouse.
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Crop, Building & installations

Mitigate the risk of ensuing storm damage in large greenhouses

Insights are changing. Especially when we talk about the prevention of storm damage. Recently conducted research tells us that greenhouses are significantly stronger when the air vents are closed during a storm.
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Building & installations, Climate Risk