harvst Harvster, User Manual

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Introduction
Harvst is not just a product, it’s everything needed to build a productive growing space at
home, on an allotment or in a school yard.
It’s a combination of ​greenhouse​, ​automation technology​, ​advice​ and ​community​ to help
small areas of cultivation become more productive. Whether that’s an existing raised bed in
a large allotment, or a small corner of an urban backyard.
Your Harvst setup could just be irrigation hardware in a polytunnel or greenhouse, or one of
our fully automated “Harvsters” - smart greenhouses or cold frames designed for
automation, with built-in rainwater collection, irrigation, cooling, heating and lighting.
Giving your plants the environment they need
Plants grow best when they are given a protected environment with the right temperature,
and the right amount of water. The Harvst mini-greenhouses provide shelter from the cold
and wind, as well as a built in irrigation system to do the watering for you. If your Harvster
is near a mains electricity connection, it can provide extra heating and grow lights to extend
your growing season, and even grow greens all year round.
The control box connects to your home or garden WiFi network so that you can monitor
conditions in your Harvster, greenhouse or polytunnel, and change settings from anywhere.
The Harvst control system can run off grid, powered by a small solar panel. Off grid power
is sufficient to run all sensors and irrigation. If you choose to add heaters or grow lights,
then you will need a mains electricity connection.
An internet connection is required, which means that the Harvst system is not suitable
for a remote allotment location, unless you can provide a local wifi hotspot using an
off-the-shelf 3G/4G system. The Harvst WiFi antenna works well up to 50m
line-of-sight. If you are in any doubt that your WiFi signal is strong enough, please
request a WiFi signal test device which we can loan to you before you purchase a full
system.