A smart and automated sustainable solution for healthy food production

HEALTHY FOOD VISION

We want to develop the most sustainable and green food production system on the planet. We want that it is accessible to families, rural parts, big industries, countries in the development and even for Mars.

BENEFITS

CHARACTERISTICS

We decided to make a smart greenhouse, that will work autonomously and automated. We want to take advantage of natural light, aquaculture with organic nutrients, artificial intelligence, robotics, and architectural modern design.

HouzGREENhouse is a modular passive solar greenhouse that it is heated by the sun. It is designed to grow plants all year round. The system is based mostly on hydroponics, where you grow plants with the help of biological nutrients or aquaponics, where you grow plants with the help of fish. The modules can be easily added depends on your needs. Each module has his own humidity and temperature, depends which plants you have inside. In the addition there is a solar food drying system, mushroom grows system, solar composting system and algae grow system. We calculated an approximate yield of 30kg vegetables per year per module. Four modules should be enough for a family of four for vegetables and fishes through all the year.

Principle of hydroponics

The system is based on hydroponics where we add nutrients in the water circling around the system. The roots will not be planted in the soil but in an airy substrate. The advantage of this is very low water consumption and faster absorption nutrients.

Passive modular units

The construction is designed as passive construction, which means that the greenhouse in winter covers an optimum amount of light and stores heat in heat collectors. In the summer it is shaded with shades that open or close according to needs. This prevents overheating in the summer and enable optimum growth. Growth sensors, pH levels in the water, the amount of nutrients required and maturity are an integral part of the whole system. It alerts us to errors, the maturity of fruit or vegetables, and the possible maintenance tasks.

We prepared 4 modules that will be connected and share the heat, nutrients, and water. Two modules (GreenHouz1 and GreenHouz2) will offer a place for growing vegetables, the thirds module ChickenHouz will offer a cozy stay for chickens and the fourth module BlackHouz is meant to grow mushrooms, to collect rainwater and treat the compost. 

The modules help each other by exchanging heat and exchanging nutrients. In winter nights, ChickenHouz emits heat to the GreenHouz unit. BlackHouz can also operate a daily heat collector, but at night this heat emits ChickenHouz and GreenHouz.

MODULES

GreenHouz

GreenHouz is intended for cultivating plants according to the principle of Aquaponics (with the help of fish) or on the principle of hydroponics (the introduction of nutrients into water). It is divided into two modules, the first for less sensitive plants, and others for plants that need special conditions (special moisture, quantity, and type of light, etc.). In the first module we cultivate local plants, while in the second module we have exotic plants, special spices, medical marijuana, etc.

ChickenHouz

ChickenHouz is a module for the production of eggs and white meat. It is intended for shelter for hen or goat. The module additionally helps with the capture of heat and the production of frozen waste into nutrients. Chickens are fed with organic waste from the kitchen and worms from the compost.

BlackHouz

BlackHouse has various purposes. In it we can store a wintering machine, we can cultivate mushrooms, use it as a drying room, heat collecting room, rainwater harvesting or act as a compost.

Future ideas

Depending on the needs of the market, we will upgrade the following levels. In particular, we see great potential in the cultivation of various mushrooms for the production of new materials, or even for the production of insulation on a mobile house next to the greenhouse.

AWARDS

In 2017 we won the best idea and business model at Podjetna primorska 2017 in the category Navigator (the category for people already involved in the business).