Measurement of evapotranspiration rate in a single-span greenhouse using the energy-balance equation

The energy-balance equation was used to estimate evapotranspiration in a greenhouse, and an instrument was developed to collect data for this purpose. The values estimated by this method were in good agreement with the measured data. It was shown that the net solar radiation term was the largest and cannot be neglected, and that long-wave radiation exchange had a relatively small effect. As usual, soil heat flux can be neglected but the sensible heat transfer term cannot be neglected since the maximum of the possible range of values is large and significant. It was concluded that the method used was simple and suitable for irrigation control in greenhouses. It was also concluded that normal radiation sensor measurements on a horizontal surface are not adequate for measuring radiation received by a plant canopy in a single-span greenhouse.