JPH06217652A - Plant-culturing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a plant-culturing apparatus constituted so as to carry out air conditioning control of cooling, etc., necessary to grow plants utilizing energy of compressed air. CONSTITUTION:The plant culturing apparatus is constituted of a plant growing chamber 3 and a cooling chamber 4 through a partition wall 2 and the apparatus is provided with an air cooling means constituted so as to jet the compressed air into this cooling chamber 4 and then expand this introduced compressed air in the cooling chamber so as to retain inner pressure of the cooling chamber higher than that of the plant growing chamber and a means for introducing air cooled by this air cooling means from the cooling chamber into the plant growing chamber.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plant cultivating device for artificially controlling an air conditioning condition such as a temperature suitable for a plant growing environment for cultivating a plant, which is particularly required for growing a plant. The present invention relates to a plant cultivation device in which compressed air energy is used to adjust an air conditioning environment such as cooling.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some researchers have conducted research on a so-called plant factory in which plants are cultivated by artificially controlling lighting conditions and air conditioning conditions such as temperature suitable for a plant growing environment. Publications about factories are also distributed. Despite the theoretically great potential of this plant factory, it is said that the impediment to its development lies in the cost of electricity needed for lighting and air conditioning. This power cost exceeds half of the production cost, and the ratio of lighting and air conditioning is about 2 to 1, so it is necessary to reduce the power cost by half in order to get the plant factory on track. Is said. In order to solve this problem, various studies such as the development of highly efficient lamps and the development of fast-growing plants have been conducted, but the present situation has not been solved.

Further, the present inventor has filed Japanese Patent Application No. 2-174532.
According to the method and apparatus for producing compressed air disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-63970 and further proposed in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 3-210462 and 3-210463, a large amount of compressed air can be produced at low cost. Can be obtained at.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is necessary for air conditioning control such as cooling, which is an obstacle to getting a plant factory into a business by using the energy of compressed air as a substitute for electric power energy. It is intended to provide a plant cultivation device that solves the problem of power cost.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a plant cultivation apparatus of the present invention comprises a plant cultivation apparatus divided into a plant growth room and a cooling room through a partition, and the cooling room is provided with an external unit. Air cooling means for ejecting more compressed air and expanding the introduced compressed air so as to maintain the internal pressure of the cooling chamber in the cooling chamber to be slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber, and this air cooling Means for introducing the air cooled by the means into the plant growth chamber from the cooling chamber.

Further, a movable wall which is expandable and contractible is formed in the cooling chamber so that the volume of the cooling chamber can be changed according to the pressure of the compressed air introduced into the cooling chamber. By the spring pressure, the internal pressure of the cooling chamber can be maintained at a predetermined pressure condition slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber, so that the expansion and contraction of the supported movable wall can be controlled. .

[0007]

The compressed air blown into the cooling chamber takes away heat from the cooling chamber when it rapidly expands in the cooling chamber, and lowers the temperature inside the cooling chamber. By introducing this cooled air from the cooling chamber into the plant growing room, the air conditioning conditions such as cooling in the plant growing room are controlled.

[0008]

EXAMPLES Examples will be described with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1, a plant cultivating apparatus 1 for cultivating a plant by artificially controlling an air conditioning condition such as a temperature suitable for a plant growing environment is provided with a plant growing room 3 and a lower portion which are located at an upper part through a partition wall 2. It is configured separately from the cooling chamber 4 located at. The cooling chamber 4 is provided with a compressed air filling tank 6 configured to eject compressed air into the cooling chamber 4 via the first introduction pipe 5. A first adjusting valve 7 for controlling the flow rate of the compressed air jetted into the cooling chamber 4 is attached to the first introducing pipe 5. When the first control valve 7 is opened, the compressed air filled in the compressed air filling tank 6 is ejected into the cooling chamber 4,
The jetted compressed air absorbs heat in the cooling chamber when it rapidly expands in the cooling chamber 4, and lowers the temperature in the cooling chamber. The internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 is set so that it can be maintained at a state slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber 3. In this embodiment, the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 is always controlled to be slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber 3 by adjusting the first control valve 7. The cooled air in the cooling chamber 4 is naturally introduced into the plant growth chamber 3 having an internal pressure lower than the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 through the second introduction pipe 9 whose flow rate is controlled by the second control valve 8. The inside of the plant growing room 3 is cooled by the introduced cooling air, and the temperature condition suitable for the plant growing environment is set. For the temperature control, the first control valve 7 and the second control valve 8 are directly operated or incorporated into an environmental control device for growing plants. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 is artificial light using general power supply. Note that this artificial light 10 may be used in combination with sunlight (not shown). Further, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 is a plant to be cultivated.

In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the temperature of the compressed air jetted from the compressed air filling tank 6 into the cooling chamber 4 via the first adjusting valve 7 is rapidly expanded, so that the temperature of the compressed air is lowered. To do. The inside of the cooling chamber 4 is mixed with the jetted air to be in a uniform state. If the volume of the cooling chamber 4 is large, the jetting of compressed air may be intermittent.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the cooling chamber 4 is provided with a movable wall 14 which is expandable and contractible so that the volume of the cooling chamber 4 can be changed according to the pressure of the compressed air introduced into the cooling chamber 4. A spring body 16 formed to support the movable wall 14 from below.
The spring pressure of the spring body 16 allows the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 to be maintained at a predetermined pressure condition that is slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber 3 in the vertical direction of the movable wall 14 supported by the spring body 16. It is configured so that the expansion and contraction movement can be controlled. As described in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 is controlled to be slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growing chamber 3 so that the cooled air can be naturally introduced into the plant growing chamber 3. In this embodiment, since the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 is always set slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber 3, the movable body supported by the spring body 16 having a spring pressure corresponding to the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 to be held. The volume of the cooling chamber 4 can be changed by expanding and contracting the wall 14 to keep the gas pressure in the cooling chamber 4 balanced. In this way, the movable wall 14 and the spring body 16 having a spring pressure corresponding to the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4 to be held cooperate to change the volume of the cooling chamber 4 according to the internal pressure of the cooling chamber 4. Therefore, the first control valve 7 and the second control valve 8
There is an advantage that the operation of becomes easy. The other description of the embodiment of FIG. 2 is the same as that of FIG.

[0011]

As described in the section of the prior art, although the research on plant factories theoretically has great potential, the high power cost of air conditioning and the like has become a major obstacle and development. Has hindered The present invention provides a method for significantly reducing the power cost required for air conditioning control such as cooling, which is an obstacle to getting a plant factory into a business as a business by using the energy of compressed air as a substitute for electric power energy. It is expected that it will contribute greatly to the development of the plant factory.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing a plant cultivation device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical side view showing another embodiment of the plant cultivation apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plant cultivation device 2 Partition 3 Plant growth room 4 Cooling chamber 5 1st introduction pipe 6 Compressed air filling tank 7 1st control valve 8 2nd control valve 9 2nd introduction pipe 10 Artificial light 11 Plant 14 Movable wall 16 Spring body

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plant cultivating apparatus for cultivating a plant by artificially controlling an air conditioning condition such as a temperature suitable for a plant growing environment, wherein the plant cultivating apparatus is provided with a partition between the plant growing room and the cooling room. And compressed air is blown into the cooling chamber from the outside, and the introduced compressed air is expanded in the cooling chamber so that the internal pressure of the cooling chamber can be kept slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growing chamber. A plant cultivating apparatus comprising: an air cooling unit configured to perform the above; and a unit that introduces air cooled by the air cooling unit from a cooling chamber into the plant growing chamber. 2. A stretchable movable wall is formed in the cooling chamber so that the volume of the cooling chamber can be changed according to the pressure of the compressed air introduced into the cooling chamber, and a spring body supporting the movable wall is formed. The expansion / contraction movement of the supported movable wall can be controlled by the spring pressure so that the internal pressure of the cooling chamber can be maintained at a predetermined pressure condition that is slightly higher than the internal pressure of the plant growth chamber. The plant cultivation device described.