Which system?: Hoogendoorn ECONOMIC

Four months into working with the Hoogendoorn ECONOMIC, Tom Salmon, managing director of Hedon Salads, says the system has brought a fantastic level of flexibility to the business.
He told the Grower: "What it has given us is flexibility that we didn't have before." Hedon can now switch more easily between its CHP units, gas boilers and storage tanks. "It enables us to closely monitor the situation and determine what is best to use at what time, and I have no doubt that it will lead to cost savings along the way," he adds. "In today's climate it is up to the grower to save in every area of the business," says Tom Salmon, "We have to be low-cost producers, that is fundamental," he adds. He says in the future there will have to be some 'radical' thinking by growers. "It may be that growers will be forced to grow later and later in the season, or crop two crops instead of three."
Aiming to get the very best out of what the company has, the directors are constantly striving to improve efficiency and drive down costs. As well as glasshouse management and environmental controls, an example is that 80% of the cucumber crop is now grown using Agrofoam and Griner foam - rather than rockwool.

Installed by Ecotech UK, Hedon's two new systems (one in each of its glasshouses) are linked by one computer that monitors all aspects of glasshouse management. "The back-up service has enabled us to contact the necessary experts in Holland and for them to fix the problems remotely which obviously saves us massive amounts of time," says Tom Salmon.
"The three main factors in choosing a system like this is ease of use, ease of installation and the overall flexibility," he adds.

Hedon Salads grows approximately 30 acres of cucumbers, 42 acres of sweet peppers and 10 acres of aubergine. At the company's Burswick nursery alone, £3.5 m has been invested in the last few year's in installing crop lighting that provides 80,000 m2 of light area to grow cucumbers through the winter, making it the largest area of lit cucumber crops in Europe. The CHP, gas powered electricity generators and heat dump tanks allow considerable reductions in wastage. "The fact that we can monitor and bring together everything we do with a system like this means that we can be more efficient in every single operational area," says Tom Salmon.
With the Hoogendoorn ECONOMIC, growers can make savings of up to 25% without any loss of productivity and quality using the ECONAUT module, according to the company. Water management can be monitored using the GROWLAB moisture and IR camera. Datapoints placed around the nursery also help with the centralised system. With the measuring devices and controls in the nursery attached, the datapoints bring together all the necessary data needed to monitor the glasshouse efficiently.

Meanwhile, Hoogendoorn Automation has reported strong interest for its latest new product, the ENVIRO. The ENVIRO is a small, flexible and easy-to-operate climate controller - ideal for polytunnels, garden centres and for the smaller to medium-sized grower, who may want to computerise processes at his site for the first time.

Software modules available within the ENVIRO include heating, ventilation, humidity control, air circulation and cooling, screening, lighting, fogging, irrigation, CO2, boiler control and an alarm program.
All of these software modules, together with the supplied I/0 of the controller, are freely addressable to suit the end user's specific requirements and budget, so unlike some other controllers where one 'box' is only able to control ventilation and another 'box' only screens. The ENVIRO can simply be programmed with the I/0 available to control whatever you want, and within however many zones are required, giving it enormous flexibility, according to Hoogendoorn.
Choose one or more sensors, or a complete weather station to complement your system, and to protect ventilation systems from high winds, rain and frost, says the company. A clear and informative LCD display keeps you informed of both internal and external conditions at a glance, whilst the simple-to-use keys make changing settings easy.
A controller with four inputs and four outputs starts at just £350, and together with the purchase of an expansion board, it can easily be increased to provide eight inputs and nine outputs for only a further £180.