Photos courtesy of Roehm America
David Morrison of Roehm America explains how the company continues to enhance its greenhouse coverings, ensuring its designs meet energy code requirements and are refined based on growers’ needs.
1. Why choose acrylic over another light-transmitting plastic glazing?
Acrylic glazing offers a unique blend of long life and high light transmission. The acrylic PMMA molecule naturally resists degradation by energetic UV photons. UV can more easily break the polymer bonds of polycarbonate and polyethylene, causing yellowing and loss of strength. The same long-life PMMA molecule has excellent optical clarity, maximizing light transmission to plants. Our premium ACRYLITE® Alltop greenhouse product transmits 89% of PAR, nearly 20% more than a similar geometry of polycarbonate glazing.
2. What other benefits does ACRYLITE® acrylic glazing provide?
16 mm ACRYLITE® Alltop, a double-layer acrylic extrusion, is manufactured on a one-of-a-kind production line. This special manufacturing process applies our NO DRIP coating on all surfaces, inside and out. This means any water condensation inside the channel spreads into a thin film, allowing sunlight to pass. Other products condense water into droplets, which scatter light back out to the sky.
3. Does ACRYLITE® transmit UV light?
The original version of ACRYLITE® Alltop was formulated to absorb UV, protecting people and plants from damaging radiation. However, we recognized a need in the market for a UV-transmitting version of Alltop that would help those crops that benefit from UV stress. As a result, our UV-transmitting version has become the preferred choice for most cannabis growers.
4. Do your products meet energy code requirements?
In 2021, the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) introduced a requirement that the light-transmitting roofs of certain mechanically heated or cooled greenhouses have a maximum U-factor of 0.5 Btu/ft2-hr-°F. Then, in 2022 California introduced a requirement that the light-transmitting envelopes of conditioned greenhouses have two or more layers. The goal of both of these codes is to reduce energy loss through greenhouse glazing. In both cases, 16 mm double-skin ACRYLITE® Alltop is an excellent choice. It has a U-factor of 0.44 Btu/ft2-hr-°F, which saves 12% more energy than the IECC requirement. It also meets the California requirement without additional energy curtain systems.
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