Passive Cooling of Natural Ventilated Polyhouse During Summer using IR Reflective Film

The high temperature (soil and air) and light intensity are major challenge in utilizing the natural ventilated polyhouse (PH) during summer season. There is urgent need to develop passive cooling system to address the challenge so that natural ventilated PH can be utilized for round the year cultivation. The IR reflective film have novel property in addressing the challenge, so it is utilized to develop natural ventilated PH to passively cool it during summer season. The efficacy of IR reflective film in cooling the natural ventilated PH is compared with open field and clear film by measuring the microclimate parameters and crop growth parameters. The increase in maximum temperature under clear film PH and IR reflective film PH are 6.2°C and 1.5°C respectively in comparison to open field. The IR reflective film is more suitable than clear film in reducing the temperature during summer season. The increase in yield under IR reflective film PH is 7.6% more than clear film PH due to suitable microclimate conditions under IR reflective film PH.