Improvement of the greenhouse climate using a solar air heater with latent storage energy

In this research, we used two identical greenhouses. One, uses a latent heat system for heating, constructed and installed in the CRTEn (Research and Technologies Centre of Energy) in Tunisia. This heating system consists of a new solar air heater collector using a packed bed of spherical capsules with phase change materials. The solar air heater was inserted inside a greenhouse planted with tomato plants and operated during the winter season. The nighttime recovered heat of this system attained 30% of the total requirements of heating.