How do you heat a couple of greenhouses in the cold of an Ohio winter without spending a fortune? Three UT engineering students, Jason Augsburger, Nicholas Salenbien and Craig Carson under the supervision of Professor Doug Oliver set about finding out for their Senior Design Project as part of their degree program.
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The three students investigated several possibilities in terms of efficiency, installation costs and ongoing fuel costs. An innovative, natural gas heated, hot water system, designed to heat the soil around plant roots without necessarily heating the entire air space of the greenhouses, became their final recommendation.
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As part of their project, the team investigated insulation methods and devised a clever “bubble wrap” system that holds heat inside the greenhouses, even when the temperature plunges outside.
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Thanks to the hard work of the group and the helpful input of their advisor, we are now in a position to raise the money needed to install the heating system and be able to produce food for our local food bank all year long!
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