Energy Optimization
Energy intelligence that protects yield while cutting waste.
Sera correlates real-time energy draw, climate behavior, hardware response, pricing signals, and crop demand to explain inefficiencies, prioritize savings opportunities, and recommend protocol-safe adjustments—delivering lower kWh per kg without risking transpiration, fruit set, or quality.
The challenge
Energy is often the largest variable OpEx in commercial greenhouses—frequently 30–60% of total costs for heated/high-light crops like tomatoes and peppers. Yet optimization is extremely difficult because:
Conflicting priorities: Maintaining optimal night temperatures, CO₂ enrichment, or dehumidification load during low-price windows competes with avoiding yield penalties from under-heating or ventilation overrides.
Hidden waste patterns: Boiler short-cycling, circulation pump overuse, vent fighting heating, delayed curtain response, or dehumidifier running unnecessarily during high-radiation periods add 5–20% unnecessary consumption without obvious setpoint breaches.
Dynamic pricing and load-shedding complexity: Spot-market electricity/gas prices spike unpredictably; simple on/off rules or fixed load-shed thresholds either waste energy during cheap periods or cause transient drifts (RH spikes, VPD stalls) that impact growth.
Lack of cause-effect visibility: Growers see high bills but can’t quickly trace drivers—e.g., is excess draw from boiler inefficiency, uneven pipe distribution, or over-ventilation to manage humidity?
Risk-averse adjustments: Without precise impact forecasting, teams hesitate to tighten protocols—fear of BER, smaller fruit, or uneven ripening keeps conservative (higher) energy baselines in place.
Scaling challenges: Multi-site or expansion multiplies variability in boiler types, insulation quality, pipe lengths, or local pricing—manual benchmarking and rule-setting become impossible at scale.
Without granular, crop-safe reasoning, energy stays a blunt cost center instead of a tunable lever for margins.
How Sera helps
Sera ingests energy meters, boiler/heat-pump logs, climate computer commands, weather forecasts, pricing feeds (when integrated), and your uploaded energy SOPs/protocols. It reasons continuously over physics-based correlations, historical cycles, and site context to surface waste drivers, quantify impacts, and propose adjustments that preserve or enhance crop performance.
Daily energy performance brief delivered automatically
Morning/weekly push: Natural-language summary focused on consumption drivers and savings levers.
"Yesterday energy use 18% above rolling 7-day average—primarily from boiler short-cycling during 03:00–05:00 low-load period (min runtime rule triggered 42 cycles). Impact: Pipe temp instability caused minor RH +5% drift; no yield penalty detected. Recommendation: Raise min runtime 3 min or disable load-shed below 40% demand."
Highlights top contributors: Short-cycling, ventilation overrides, dehumidifier overuse, or delayed curtain closure during price spikes.
Instant diagnostics and savings recommendations via chat
Ask for precise, context-aware answers tied to your crop and protocols:
"Why was energy draw high during last night's heating phase?" → "High draw from boiler short-cycling (avg cycle 4.2 min vs target 8–12 min) + circulation pump running full speed despite low delta-T. Correlated to pipe temp drop of 7 °C in downstream zones. Impact: Minor transpiration stall 02:30–03:15; estimated yield drag <1%. Suggested fix: Increase min cycle time or add variable pump control per your winter protocol."
"How can we reduce energy tonight with current pricing forecast?" → "Forecast peak pricing 18:00–22:00. Current strategy allows 2 °C night drop without risk. Recommendation: Pre-cool to 18.5 °C by 17:00 using free cooling vents (if RH permits), then apply load-shed above 60% demand. Projected savings: 11–14% on tonight’s bill; VPD stays 0.9–1.1 kPa, no generative stress."
"Compare energy-per-kg this cycle vs. last winter same variety."
Proactive inefficiency detection beyond thresholds
Identifies subtle patterns:
Ventilation counteracting heating (e.g., lee-side vents open during pipe heat).
Dehumidifier runtime during high solar gain periods (unnecessary when transpiration handles RH).
Uneven pipe distribution causing localized over-heating to compensate.
Applies your rules to avoid risky suggestions:
"Suppress load-shed recommendations if current fruit-load phase requires <1.5 °C night deviation."
"Flag only short-cycling if cycle count >30/h and pipe delta-T >5 °C."
Knowledge base enforcement for protocol-safe optimization
Upload your energy management rules, temperature drop allowances by phenology, CO₂ enrichment priorities, acceptable night setbacks, and site-specific constraints (e.g., boiler efficiency curves, pipe lengths).
Sera ensures every recommendation aligns:
"Proposed 1.2 °C setback fits your Phase 6 protocol (max 1.5 °C drop, no BER risk at current Ca levels)."
"Load-shed applied only during non-critical windows—photosynthesis impact <2% based on forecasted PAR."
Orchestrated actions for consistent savings
Smart alerts routed: High-impact waste to ops/CEO; hardware patterns to technical manager.
Automated workflows:
Price spike detected → suggest/apply pre-cool + load-shed per SOP + require grower approval if crop-sensitive.
Recurring short-cycling → push maintenance task (check valves, air bleed) + log trend for review.
The results
Meaningful energy reduction: 8–25% lower consumption per cycle through targeted fixes—short-cycling elimination, smarter load-shedding, ventilation/curtain synchronization—without yield or quality trade-offs.
Protected crop performance: Adjustments stay within your exact tolerances for VPD, transpiration, CO₂, and generative/vegetative balance—no hidden risks from aggressive cuts.
Faster decision speed: Instant visibility into drivers and quantified impacts—teams act confidently instead of conservatively.
Improved margins at scale: Savings compound across sites; benchmarking reveals site-to-site opportunities; fixed costs dilute as output rises on lower inputs.
Audit-ready transparency: Every change, rationale, and outcome logged—ready for sustainability reporting, investor updates, or energy rebate programs.
You turn energy from a cost burden into a controllable, crop-aligned advantage.
