Greenhouse Area Planning Calculator

Work out greenhouse area planning instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Greenhouse Area Planning Calculator

A greenhouse is priced on gross covered area but earns only on the bed area. Beds repeat at a pitch of bed width plus path width, so the bed count is house width divided by that pitch, and cropped area is beds x bed width x house length. Utilisation of 65-75% is normal once paths and headlands are allowed for.

Formulas

Bed layout

Pitch = bed width + path width; beds = floor(house width / pitch)

Cropped area

Cropped area = beds x bed width x house length; utilisation = cropped / gross x 100

Worked example

With the default values below, Greenhouse Area Planning Calculator returns Net Cropped Area of 672.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Bed Widthminimum 0.1 m: 1.2 m
Path Width Between Bedsminimum 0 m: 0.5 m
Greenhouse Widthminimum 1 m: 24 m
Greenhouse Lengthminimum 1 m: 40 m

Results

Net Cropped Area: 672.00
Gross Covered Area: 960.00
Number Of Beds: 14
Area Utilisation: 70.00%

Step by step

1Values used
2Bed layout
3Cropped area
4Net Cropped Area= 672.00
5Gross Covered Area= 960.00
6Number Of Beds= 14
7Area Utilisation= 70.00

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How narrow can paths be?

0.4-0.5 m works for hand operations; 0.6-0.8 m is needed for a trolley or harvest cart. Cutting paths below what workers can use costs more in labour than it gains in area.

Should beds run along the length?

Usually yes — long runs reduce turning and simplify irrigation manifolds. Very long houses sometimes need a cross corridor, which costs a further 3-5% of area.