Lucas Greenhouses

With over 40 years of expertise in supplying efficient climate equipment, BioTherm has forged a strategic partnership with Lucas Greenhouses, enhancing their horticultural capabilities through cutting-edge technologies and sustainable solutions.

Grower

George & Louise Lucas

Company

Lucas Greenhouses

Location

Monroeville, New Jesey

We have been building with BioTherm’s climate technologies since 1980. When it came time to expand our facility, BioTherm was our only call. In the 1980s we started out with BioTherm heat in our first 9000 sq. ft. and now we have over 2+ million sq. ft. of heated space.
In 2022, we rooted over 55 million cuttings and without root zone heating we couldn’t even come close to that amount.

The Challenge

Lucas Greenhouses has been building with BioTherm since the early 80s. When it came time to add another range to their current facility, BioTherm was the only call.

Lucas Greenhouses needed a Flood Floor irrigation system, along with in-floor heat, gutter heat for snow melt and additional heat power solutions to manage the heat in the new range.

The Solution

BioTherm has been working closely with Lucas Greenhouses since the early 1980s and has been a part of almost every expansion over the last 40+ years. Since the 90s, they have been providing heated flood floors along with top heat/snowmelt for their expansions. So, when it came time to design this latest expansion of 200,000+ sq.ft., BioTherm and Lucas went with what has been successful in the past. This year, Lucas and BioTherm worked on a new approach to flood floor design- the ability to flood two floors at a time and install two separate drains. This gives them the ability to choose where they drain the irrigation water- either back into the water tank or sent to be treated and cleaned.

BioTherm designed a special flood floor system with high-speed flood/drain.

BioTherm also provided StarFin for their top-heat/snow melt solution.

How It Works

Specs of Project:
Floor Heat: In-Slab GreenPEX™
Top Heat: StarFin™ Plus Finned Heat-Pipe
Total Heated Area: 181,440 sq. ft.
Heat Source Solution: Raypak Boilers
Boiler: Hybrid condensing Raypak® XTherm and MVB Modulating Boiler system.

Flood Floor:
Total Flood Area: 169,344 sq. ft., divided into 48 individually controlled flood floor zones
Max Water Depth: 2”
Total Irrigation Time (all zones): 2 hours
Each FF section is irrigated in approx. 9.3 minutes (4.6 to fill, 4.6 to drain)
System is Designed to fill two floors at a time while another floor is draining
Max Tank Size: 26,500 gal.
Tank Qty: 3
Style: In-Ground with Transfer Pit

BioTherm provided Lucas Greenhouses with Raypak® boilers as their heat source solution. BioTherm provided 12 x 4 million BTUH hybrid condensing Raypak XTherm and MVB modulating boiler systems.