Pad-and-Fan Sizing Calculator.
Estimate exhaust airflow, fan count, cooling-pad face area and daily evaporation for a pad-and-fan greenhouse in hot, dry climates.
Pad-and-Fan Sizing Calculator
Estimate exhaust airflow, fan count, cooling-pad face area and daily evaporation for a pad-and-fan greenhouse in hot, dry climates.
Estimate only — not a quotation. Outputs are indicative planning ranges based on the values you enter and typical commercial benchmarks. Real pricing, specifications and lead times vary by country, site conditions and supplier, and are confirmed only in written offers collected through a private RFQ.
Project inputs
Common planning value ~120–180, adjusted for elevation and solar load.
Check the pad manufacturer's value for its thickness.
Planning values only, not an engineering design or a quotation. Final sizing requires the supplier's or engineer's own calculation for the site.
Send these numbers to the RFQ Builder
The numbers below were calculated with SeedMatchGroup's Pad-and-Fan Sizing Calculator. Indicative — the specialist will confirm scope before contacting suppliers.
14 inputs · assumptions · results
Turn this estimate into a qualified project
SeedMatchGroup is a supplier-neutral, human-led platform. We do not manufacture or resell equipment — we help buyers specify the project, review relevant suppliers privately and compare the written offers received. Supplier participation and timing are not guaranteed.
Method and assumptions
Airflow is floor area multiplied by the design airflow per square metre. Fan count divides it by each fan's rated capacity at the static pressure it will actually run against.
Leaving-air temperature follows the direct evaporative relation: T = Tdb − efficiency × (Tdb − Twb). Pad face area is airflow divided by the face velocity. Evaporation is the sensible heat removed from the air divided by the latent heat of water.
Limitations: Does not model solar gain inside the house, temperature rise from pad to fan, bleed-off water, elevation correction or humidity limits for the crop. Humid climates see little cooling because the wet-bulb depression is small.
Worked example
A 1 ha house at 150 m³/h/m² needs 1.5 million m³/h, about 40 fans of 38,000 m³/h and ~278 m² of pad at 1.5 m/s. At 42 °C / 24 °C wet-bulb and 80% efficiency the air leaves the pad near 27.6 °C.
Frequently asked questions
Related tools: cooling calculator · ventilation calculator · water storage calculator · integrated project designer
Understanding the values
What each choice in this calculator means, and how the options differ in practice.
- Design conditions
- Climate equipment is sized for the site's extreme days, not its averages. Enter your design temperature and humidity, not the annual mean.
- Equipment level
- Each added system — screens, heating, cooling, fogging — changes both the result and the operating cost. Test the house with and without each system.
Illustrative project summary
1 ha semi-closed high-tech house
An investor in a hot, water-scarce climate evaluates a semi-closed design with full climate control and CO2 enrichment.
1 ha · Semi-closed high-tech · Premium tomatoes
Indicative full greenhouse project CAPEX
USD 3.45M – USD 7.8M
Illustration only, not a real project or quotation. This is the structure, equipment and site-works budget for the example greenhouse, not the price of this calculator’s individual system, seeds or inputs, and not a result calculated from your entries. Excludes land, permits, packhouse, financing costs and working capital.
Based on the published commercial greenhouse cost benchmark. Written offers require a private project review; commercial projects start from USD 250K.
What can change the result?
This is a preliminary planning estimate based on the values you entered. The variables below usually move the outcome most, and should be confirmed with an agronomist, engineer and supplier offers before final design.
- Crop and cultivar — water, climate and support requirements differ per crop
- Growing area and layout — hectares alone are not a greenhouse specification
- Local climate: temperature, humidity, radiation and wind exposure
- Growing system (soil, substrate, hydroponic) and plant density
Questions this calculator answers
Typical buyer and investor searches this tool is built for, including the markets where we run the most commercial projects.
- commercial agriculture project cost planning per hectare for a commercial project
- commercial agriculture project cost planning for a 2-hectare project — India
- commercial agriculture project cost planning: indicative planning ranges — Kenya
- commercial agriculture project cost planning benchmarks for investors — Saudi Arabia
- commercial agriculture project cost planning under local market conditions — Mexico
- commercial agriculture project cost planning — what to specify in a supplier RFQ
Method and decision path
How to use this result in a commercial project
Use the result to test scope and compare scenarios. It is not a design, agronomic prescription, financing offer or supplier quotation.
1. Enter site evidence
Replace defaults with measured area, climate, water, energy, crop and commercial assumptions.
2. Test scenarios
Change one assumption at a time and record the effect on capacity, cost, demand or return.
3. Validate the duty
Ask the relevant agronomist, engineer or financial adviser to check the inputs and constraints.
4. Prepare a private RFQ
Carry the confirmed scope into a human-reviewed brief so written offers can be compared on the same basis.
Final specifications, performance, prices, supplier participation and timing depend on the site and written supplier responses; none is guaranteed by this calculator.
Plan the project around the numbers
A calculator output is a starting point. Pair it with the planning guides below to align timeline, irrigation, budget and risk before you launch an RFQ.
One private brief, specialist review, private supplier research and a like-for-like comparison.
Month-by-month schedule from concept to first harvest across 9 stages.
Design principles for drip, pivot, fertigation and filtration on commercial projects.
How CAPEX, working capital and operating cost drive the project business case.
The ten most expensive planning and procurement pitfalls — and how to avoid them.
Procurement answers behind these numbers
A model output only holds if the scope, contract route and delivery terms match the assumptions. These reference answers cover the commercial decisions that move the figure.
- Turnkey EPC vs separate equipment packages
- What belongs in a greenhouse equipment specification
- Normal payment milestones in equipment contracts
- Which Incoterms to use for greenhouse and irrigation equipment
- How long a commercial greenhouse takes from order to handover
- What is normally the owner's scope on a greenhouse project
Move pad-and-fan sizing calculator into a structured RFQ
Editorial · not a sales pitchCalculator outputs are indicative. When your numbers stabilise, a supplier-neutral RFQ turns those estimates into a consistent brief for comparing the written offers that participating suppliers provide.
The facts a complete, supplier-neutral request on this topic includes. Use it as a checklist before submitting.
- The scale you modelled (m², ha, t/h or units) and the CAPEX band it produced
- Which cost lines are in scope for the supplier and which you handle locally
- Specification level: basic, mid-tech or high-tech / fully automated
- Currency, budget approval status and funding source
- Timeline: decision date, delivery window and commissioning target
- Country of installation, import duties and local content requirements
- Operating assumptions you need validated (yield, energy, labour)
- Your calculator output or internal budget sheet
- Any feasibility study, business plan or board budget approval
Opens the RFQ Builder with your cost assumptions attached so suppliers price against the same scope you modelled. You stay in control — nothing is submitted until you review and confirm.
Free to submit · supplier-neutral · reviewed by a specialist before any supplier is contacted.
Running these numbers for a client project?
Agronomists, greenhouse and irrigation consultants use this calculator for feasibility, then hand the project to us for supplier shortlisting, RFQ preparation and quote comparison. You stay client-facing and we work through you.
Your client relationship stays with you — we work through you and never contact your client unless you ask.
Indicative only
- This tool is indicative only.
- It is not financial advice.
- It is not agronomic advice.
- It is not engineering design.
- Final numbers require supplier, agronomist, engineer and local regulatory review.
SeedMatch Group is an independent agricultural project sourcing and RFQ platform. We are not a farm, seed producer, fertilizer manufacturer, irrigation manufacturer, greenhouse builder, EPC contractor, lender or financial advisor. Supplier and project partner outreach is handled only after a commercial project brief is reviewed.
Supplier and manufacturer listings are provided for research, transparency and discovery only. SeedMatch Group does not provide automatic buyer-supplier introductions. Every agriculture project request is reviewed manually by the SeedMatch project team, and supplier introductions are made only after internal approval.