Determination of Thermal Radiation Emissivity and Absorptivity of Thermal Screens for Greenhouse

Abstract

Greenhouse farmers often use thermal screens to reduce greenhouse heating expenses during the winter, and for shade during hot, sunny days in the summer, as it is an inexpensive solution to temperature control relative to other available options. However, accurate measurements of their emitted and absorbed radiations are important for the selection of suitable screens that offer maximum performance. Material’s ability to save energy is highly dependent on these properties. Limited studies have investigated the measurement of these properties under natural conditions, but they are only applicable to materials having partial porosities. In this work, we describe a new radiation balance method for determining emissive power and absorptive capacity, as well as reflectivity, transmissivity and emissivity of materials having complete and partial transparency by using pyrgeometer and net radiometer. In this study, four materials with zero porosity, were tested. The emissivity value of PE, LD-13, LD-15 and PH-20 was 0.439±0.020, 0.460±0.010, 0.454±0.004, and 0.499±0.006, respectively. All tested samples showed high emitted radiation as compared to absorbed radiation.