Service Building

Service Building: Facilitating Production

The service building of a greenhouse is the area next to the greenhouse where the irrigation units and the boiler room are located. It is also the place for workers to have their breaks, there is room for offices and for packing and sorting the harvested produce. The size of the service-building depends on the scale of the greenhouse operation, the type of crop and the number of personnel.

Technical Area

The technical area in our projects is a special room for facilities required to create the right climate in the greenhouse and provide the plants with fertilized water. Typically, the technical area is split into two different sections, the energy room and irrigation room.

Energy Room

The energy room is used for energy-related equipment. It is the place were the boilers are located, electrical or gas-fired. The boilers are connected to a prefabricated manifold, which distributes the hot water into the greenhouse facility. In case of greenhouse cooling technology, there is also a manifold for cold water. Beside the production and distribution of hot and cold water, the energy room is also the area from where electricity is connected and distributed towards the electrical equipment through our sub-distribution panels.

Depending on the scale of the facility and the climatic requirements, the energy room can be sized differently. In most cases, it is designed larger than required. Being a relatively dirty area, it can be used for storage of spare parts, roof-washing equipment and for janitory services.

Irrigation Room

Next to the boiler room, the substrate room or irrigation room is one of the most important rooms in the greenhouse. It is where the irrigation units are positioned, the nutrients are prepared and the fertilizers are stored. The irrigation room is also a 'dirty' area, but can exclusively be used for irrigation equipment and purposes. Due to the importance of the boiler- and irrigation room and the numerous buttons and switches to touch, access is often only granted to trained employees.

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Service Area

While the technical room serves the greenhouse infrastructure, the service room serves the product handling and greenhouse staff.

Packing / Handling area

The packing hall is a large open area where harvested produce can be graded, packed and be prepared for transport. On the other side, preparations are made here in respect to the operations in the greenhouse. In a tomato greenhouse for example, boxes or crates are folded and loaded on the harvesting trolleys and then sent back to the workers in the growing area of the greenhouse. When sizing this space, a lot of attention is always paid to the product flow, internal logistics and the management of incoming and outgoing goods.

Offices and staff rooms

In many cases, local architects take the responsibility to build the office spaces, sanitary facilities and canteen areas. Due to local regulations, the exact positioning and sizing is usually determined by a local architect or contractor.

FAQ

What is the service building made of?

The service building typically is built in the same style of the greenhouse. The big difference is that the bervice building is covered with sandwich panels, rather than glass. This provides an insulated work environment, protected from the sun.

Where is the best place to store spare parts?

Spare parts for the greenhouse are best stored in the Energy Room of the technical area. This keeps them dry, conditioned and close-by janitory services.

Can the Service Building be a pre-existing building?

Yes! Dutch greenhouses can be connected to existing structures. In projects where this occurs however, we do house our technical systems in a technical area as part of the greenhouse. We do this to avoid infrastructural problems.

Service Building