Climate, invention, and a living collection in three overlapping worlds.
A highland cloud-forest terrarium cooled by a marine compressor and orchestrated by Node-RED, the standalone inventions built around it, and the plant collection it shelters — documented end to end.
- Accessions
- 382
- Alive today
- 278
- Genera
- 89
- Species photographed
- 91
- Terrarium volume
- 1,000 L
- Logging cadence
- 60 s
- Operational since
- 2023
A living atlas of convergent highlands.
Species that prefer the open balcony.
Every mist cycle and watt-hour, counted.
Measurements started in February 2026. The hardware itself has been running since late 2022.
- Mist cycles
- 1,329
- 556 per month
- Electricity
- 152 kWh
- 64 kWh per month
- Electricity bill
- €46
- €19 per month
- CO₂ quietly scrubbed
- 9.9 kg
- 4.1 kg per month
- Sensor readings
- 2.60 million
- 1.09 million per month
- Hours near-saturated
- 94
- 39 per month
Each cycle releases a few seconds of fine fog. Water volume per cycle is still being calibrated.
Meross MSS310 on the whole power strip — compressor, 4× ChilLED grow lights, fans, Pi, sensors. Mean ~110 W continuous: 60–90 W overnight, 170–180 W midday peak.
At Italian residential rates (~€0.30/kWh) — about a month of daily cappuccinos.
≈ a 50-km drive in a small car, offset by the plants. Modelled from 380 plants × ~0.36 g/day.
33 signals × 1 per minute, straight into InfluxDB.
Cumulative time at ≥ 95% RH — the threshold where epiphytic moss starts to drink.
Three projects from one grower in Genova. The highland cabinet simulates cloud-forest weather in real time, the inventions are smaller experiments that either spun off from it or answered a problem it couldn’t, and the collection is the accumulated census of everything alive (and many things no longer).
Quick links: GitHub · Highland Dashboard · Live UI · Dendrogram · Wishlists