Ceres GS Presents The SunChamber™
Ceres GS Presents, The SunChamber™ – a Sealed Geothermal Growhouse, Powered by the Sun, the Earth, and Data
Indoor Ag-Con Exhibitor News Ceres GS: Ceres Greenhouse Solutions , a company specializing in smart greenhouse design and engineering, has named their new sealed growhouse design, the SunChamber™ – characterized by its sun harvesting and climate control capabilities.
The SunChamber™ is more than a greenhouse, it’s a catalyst to a new way of food production. The SunChamber™ is a holistic system design for farmers looking to achieve maximum climate control in order to consistently yield the highest quality crop. The design includes the following components into one superior growing solution:
- The Ceres EcoLoop™ geothermal HVAC system
- A Ceres smart controller that monitors greenhouse conditions for continued optimization of the grow environment
- QbD (Quality by Design) principles applied throughout both the grow houses and processing facility commonly called the headhouse
- Ozone water treatment and water reclamation
- Fertigation systems
- Customized grow systems, including air purification, CO2 enhancement and clean in place (CIP) sanitation systems
Complete and Precise Climate Control Within Each Grow Environment
The sealed and insulated properties of the SunChamber™ envelope, combined with the full system automation of a Ceres smart controller, allow for complete and precise climate control within each grow environment. Growers can precisely monitor and adapt the growhouse according to the needs of the plants (i.e., genetics, evapotranspiration rates, etc.), while maintaining optimal Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD)—maximizing plant growth and yield while minimizing operating costs. VPD-based climate control significantly reduces energy consumption without compromising plant health. Full growhouse automation also reduces the need for labor and lowers the potential for human error.
The SunChamber™ is designed to be built on a modular scale to grow with your business. As each greenhouse is sealed from the rest of the facility, there is complete biosecurity as well as independent climate control in each greenhouse unit.
SunChamber™ design also integrates seamlessly with Ceres’ innovative and highly energy-efficient ground-coupled heat pump HVAC system called the EcoLoop™. The EcoLoop™ heats, cools and dehumidifies the SunChamber™ by utilizing the steady temperature of the earth. This geothermal HVAC system is up to 60% more efficient than a traditional HVAC system and can be replicated for each greenhouse environment. Additionally, the ground coupling component of the system allows for a 10% federal tax credit. For the time being, the EcoLoop™ functions exclusively with the Ceres SunChamber™, however Ceres may be expanding its use to other products and applications in the near future.
The SunChamber™ includes custom system integrations to align with each client’s individual growing needs. After understanding the client’s site information and growing goals, Ceres designs an optimized facility that combines all the technology and grow systems needed for the cultivator to achieve the highest possible yields for the lowest energy input.
Bringing the Sun Indoors
Ceres applies QbD (quality by design) principles to all SunChamber™ facilities. QbD is a systematic approach to product and product development in order to deliver safe, consistent products while emphasizing manufacturing efficiency. Some QbD design considerations include biosecurity, employee workflow, environmental consistency, measurability and manufacturing efficiency. These principles ensure less crop failure, a more user-friendly workflow, and the ability of the facility to become GMP certified if need be.
The SunChamber™ is bringing the sun indoors by combining controlled environment agriculture with the productivity of sunlight. In a time when crops are more and more vulnerable to changes in the climate, the SunChamber™ provides year-round crop security and consistency. This also means more yield per square foot than traditional agriculture. On top of biosecurity, growing in a SunChamber™ will reduce water, land and energy usage, and will make local food production more accessible.
For more Indoor Ag-Con Exhibitor News Ceres GS like the SunChamber™, email Ceres Greenhouse Solutions at info@ceresgs.com
(September 28, 2020) – 
Driever went on to detail how TAC has operated a 3,000 square foot greenhouse and 1,000 square foot grow room raising leafy greens for the past 10 years.
Launched in 2018, the indoor farm has approximately 6,000 square feet of space and capacity for 26,000 plants. The farm raises lettuce, kale, basil microgreens, amaranth, green and purple shiso, wasabi, cilantro and mint. Twelve full and part-time employees work at the indoor farm. They monitor the pumps, which dispense nutrients as they are needed. They transfer plants from germination to seedling stage and later to the area where plants grow to their desired size and are harvested. We have a great opportunity to explore agricultural sustainability and we’ve got a great opportunity to create jobs for people with disabilities. Arnold Farms uses no pesticides, and the founder Craig Varterian likes to call the facilities plants ‘purer than organic’. What’s Varterian’s dream for the future of Arnold Farms? He’d like to employ this kind of farming around the country, especially in ‘food deserts’ where food isn’t easily accessible. “I’d like to see people with disabilities as leaders around the country in this type of farming,” he adds. More information is available 
Founded in 1961, DDI is a dynamic, non-profit agency with more than 30 locations throughout Long Island, NY. It provides special education, vocational , day and residential programs, as well as healthcare services for more than 5,000 children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities. The Horticulture curriculum of DDI offers greenhouse opportunities to more than 300 adults served in Adult Day Services. The greenhouse has been in operation for more than 30 years. Some of the vegetables include peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, kale and various herbs to name a few. The greenhouse offers 1,500 square feet of growing space. This enables the DDI team to grow vegetables indoors during the colder weather. Vegetables grown are either sold at farmers markets or used at various site for cooking classes. More information is available 
Greens Do Good raises microgreens, basil and butterhead lettuce hydroponically in Hoboken, New Jersey. They donate 100% of their proceeds to REED Next, a nonprofit organization supporting adults with autism. This helps provide continued education, life experience, and work opportunities so that these individuals can achieve greater independence and participate meaningfully in their communities. Greens Do Good also provides these individuals the opportunity to work at our farm. Our focus is on providing local businesses with top-quality, locally grown ingredients year-round. We hand-pick and pack our produce at the height of freshness and deliver them straight to our customer’s door for peak taste and nutrition. In the future, we hope to open more farms with the goal of expanding and continuing to create sustainable funding for REED Next. More information about our work is available 
Lettuce Dream is a social enterprise engaged in hydroponic farming that exists to provide meaningful employment and job training programs for persons with cognitive or developmental disabilities so that they may enjoy the benefits of living, working and fully participating in our community. Lettuce Dream was founded in 2016 and operates a 6700 square foot hydroponic greenhouse. Lettuce Dream helps to provide workplace skill training for young adults with intellectual disabilities. The people with disabilities in Lettuce Dream’s program take part in an internship alongside volunteers from the community, staff and their college peers from Northwest Missouri State University growing 500-700 lbs of leafy greens and living basil per week. The interns in the program help with all aspects of Lettuce Dream’s business operations including- seeding, transplant, packaging, food safety recordkeeping, data entry, invoicing and customer service. After obtaining the necessary pre-vocational skills and developing their resumes through the internship program, Lettuce Dream helps the interns transition to community employment. Lettuce Dream helps the individuals in the program secure jobs and provides further on the job support through job coaching. Since their founding, Lettuce Dream has helped provide employment supports for 24 people with disabilities and has an 83% placement rate for individuals that have completed the program. More information is available
Medina Creative Produce provides vocational training for students from Medina County School Districts and adults with physical and developmental disabilities, many whom are residents of Medina Creative Housing. Workers develop skills such as cultivating, harvesting and marketing locally grown, nutrient rich Butter Bibb and Romaine lettuce. Our hydroponic greenhouse is fully handicapped accessible to accommodate the broad spectrum of individuals with disabilities that we serve. In 2011, a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was held celebrating the opening of our hydroponic greenhouse, which supplies local restaurants, schools and area businesses with gourmet lettuce. A weekly harvest produces on average six hundred heads of lettuce and proceeds pay the workers’ wages. Our lettuce is used to support our café’s located at local hospitals. More information available 
Murdoch Developmental Center in Butner, NC is one of three state operated developmental centers, primarily serving 25 counties of the Central Region. Murdoch provides services and support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), complex behavioral challenges and or medical conditions whose clinical treatment needs cannot be supported in the community. Murdoch operates four specialty programs including children and adolescents programs which are available for individuals residing in all regions of the state. Our hydroponic greenhouse is a vital component of our vocational rehabilitation program. More information is available 
Peacehaven Community Farm is a sustainable farm established in 2007 and located on 89 beautiful acres of organic gardens, rolling pastures, and lush woodlands that connects people with special needs to their community – and connects their community to them! After high school graduation, there are few housing and programming options for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Peacehaven seeks to offer these folks in our community the choice to live in a farm setting within a community where people with and without disabilities live and work side by side. We use the term “Core Members” to describe the individuals with disabilities who live and work at Peacehaven. That term reflects their central status in our community. They are at the core of all that we do and are the best teachers of the values of community. Major expansions in our vocational and housing programs are planned for this year. In our hydroponic greenhouse we focus on raising lettuce, greens and culinary herbs. Partnerships with other organizations in our community and the Growing Opportunities collation represent a keystone practice for Peacehaven. More information is available in this 
Currently more than 85% of individuals with developmental disabilities are unemployed due to lack of transitional support, job-site training, and employment opportunities geared for success. The Trellis Center aims to fill this gap for young adults with developmental disabilities who are approaching this transition time or adults who have graduated from high school but still need a structured environment designed to match programming to individual capabilities. With a focus on agriculture, the Trellis Center provides vocational skill development, stimulating activities, and a social community of peers. More information is available
Building on the success of the indoor hydroponic operation, TAC Industries Inc. built a 3,000 square foot hydroponic greenhouse in 2010. Twelve adults with developmental disabilities regularly work there to raise lettuce, kale, cilantro and orache. The produce is served at our sister restaurant “Fresh Abilities” and is also available at the local farmer’s market. Our customers have also included both public and private local schools, restaurants and the local culinary institute. We aim to donate 40# of produce each week to 2nd Harvest Food Bank (supporting over 60 pantries in 3 counties). More information is available 
Through the use of innovative urban farming models, we provide supported employment for adults with special needs and autism. We grow greens and micro greens for local restaurants, colleges, and individuals within the community. All of our produce is non GMO and grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. More information is available