Containment plant growth room at the Royal Holloway College room is being used for research on arabidopsis and other plant species
Cambridge Glasshouse has designed and produced a containment plant growth room for the school of biological sciences at the Royal Holloway College, London.
Designed to be used outdoors, while maintaining a precisely controlled environment inside, the room is being used for research on arabidopsis and other plant species.
The unit was manufactured off site and delivered, fully equipped and ready for use.
Measuring 2.4m wide by 3.2m deep and 2m high, the unit comprises a growth room and antechamber. Temperature can be accurately controlled in the range of 15C to 25C and humidity between 60% and 80% RH.
It is fitted with two-point cyclic time control for temperature and humidity, so that day and night time conditions can be accurately imitated. This process is pre-programmed and automatically controlled.
Air is filtered as it enters the unit in the antechamber.
Under negative pressure it is then drawn through the growth room and filtered again before it reaches the outside.
In total the air within the unit is refreshed four times per hour.
"The college team was pleased that we were able to meet the high technical specification for their new growth room," said John Holland, director of Cambridge Scientific.
"But it was also important to them that we could make it work as a self contained unit outdoors.
"Steel clad, the room features excellent weather proofing and thermal insulation.
"We were also able to equip it to the team's precise requirements. "We provided shelving, high frequency fluorescent lighting, a washbasin for the antechamber and an alarm system.
"And since this was completed and tested before delivery, onsite disruption was kept to a minimum".
Cambridge Scientific has recently launched a new range of temperature and humidity controlled plant growth chambers.
The smallest has internal dimensions of 1.64m wide x 1.64m deep x 2.02m high.
Due to their modular construction a wide range of larger sizes is also available.
They are available with one, two, or three shelves and maximum light levels of 500 to 175 micromols respectively.
Normal temperature range is 10C to 30C and CO2 control up to 2000ppm is possible.
