Fire Risk in Vertical Farms

July 17, 2018

• Peter Lane - Founder at CEA Research and Development Ltd

I have yet to see any information on or an assessment of the risk of fires in CEA operations, especially in high-density vertical farms, even though there is obviously evidence that the risk exists.

When you have large power sources to supply the energy needed by the LED lighting, and the hot surfaces of AC/DC adapters and the lighting units themselves, there is always the risk of an electrical fire, and by adding the possibility of a water leakage the risk increases.

Short crops such as lettuces and herbs are not flammable, so there is no risk from these crops, but things change when you start looking at tall crops such as tomatoes or chili bushes.

Tall crops can discard leaves which will quickly dry out, and can become a fire risk if not removed, but how can you remove fallen leaves in tall and densely packed units? There are of course ways of catching discarded leaves by using netting or leaf catching guards, but this adds to costs.

Fire detection and control is not easy in a highly dense, hot and humid environment and the likelihood of a fire is quite low, but it is still possible, especially when you look at all the plugs and sockets you see on some photos of plants you see on Linkedin.

Good electrical design and safety circuits are a must, especially short circuit protection. Think of using cable trenches rather than cable trays, and where you cant use trenches, use trunking instead of cable trays and ladders, which provides better cable protection.

Working out safe access and egress to motors, panels, and junction boxes should be done at the design stage, you would be surprised at how many so-called professional installations have given no thought whatsoever to safety and access/egress when they 'plan' their cable routing and electrical systems layout.

Vertical farming is not just about master growers and growing crops, you need engineers to make it all work smoothly and efficiently and to keep you safe.

Have a safe day.