The Challenge

Nor’Eastern Farms had an old oil fired steam boiler connected to leaky and rusted steel pipes under the mobile benches they used to heat their potted plant crop. They struggled to keep temperature and main- tain the equipment, and constantly wor- ried the system would shut down, leaving their plants in the cold—all while paying high fuel bills. Bill, the facilities manager, was fed up and knew they needed an upgrade. He had heard about BioTherm from another greenhouse owner and told his boss to call 1-800-GET-HEAT.

The BioTherm Solution

Keeping in mind time and budget, BioTherm provided Nor’Eastern with a plan to retrofit their greenhouse with a StarFin Under Bench System and a SunFin Snowmelt System around the perimeter and gutters. Nor’Eastern also recently got natural gas in the area, so BioTherm provided them with multiple quiet and highly efficient condensing Raypak boilers to replace their inefficient and clunky steam boilers.

How It Works

The StarFin aluminum finned pipe uses push connections that make it easy to replace the old rusty steel pipes. It also puts out twice the heat per linear foot, so less pipe was needed. The system provides precise gentle heating to the crop’s root zone.

The high heat output of SunFin under the gut- ters made for a perfect snow melt system that is quick and responsive during a snow event. The multiple condensing boiler system is designed to use latent heat from the flue gases, greatly increasing the efficiency of the system while providing redundancy. It allows Nor’Eastern a worry-free heating system without outrageous heating costs.