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Vertical Farming LED Grow Lights
Plant Factories, Vertical farms, Indoor Farming,… either fully automated or manual, their success in many cases depends a lot on the ideal LED grow light solution.
LED as technology fits of course ideal with the basic needs of multi-layer vertical farming.
Few heat allows limited space between the lamps and the crops leading to a more efficient space occupation.
Much lower power consumption compared to traditional light technologies has made that plant factories today are almost uniquely equipped with LED grow lights to reduce the operational cost.
While most of the LED grow lights bars look rather similar, the differences couldn’t be bigger…
For those who have been running a vertical farm already for a few years it is all crystal clear today – it is all about healthy plants, your capex and opex!
The CoolGrow® Linear
“A linear LED grow light bar full of surprises” this is how you best describe the CoolGrow® Linear.
Besides a market leading light efficiency, this vertical farming grow light platform is foreseen from a bunch of sophisticated features and options what makes implementation in your farm so much more practical.
Light spectra in function of your goals
A “one spectrum server all” is never the ideal approach.
Mimicking the sun light maybe will deliver you healthy plants, but in most cases comes with an operation expense on electricity consumption which is completely unrealistic.
Therefore we have developed a wide score of grow light spectra for plant factories, each with its specific purpose and with an absolute balance between targeted plant growth and optimal light efficacy.
| Recipe name | Spectrum composition percentages | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 5RW | 87%R 13%W | High Generative – higher white rate for visible inspection - Ornamentals / cannabis flowering / tomatoes / strawberries / … |
| 5RBW | 89%R 6%B 5%W | Generative – open crop production – Ornamentals / cannabis flowering / tomatoes / strawberries Juneberry / blackberries / … |
| 5RB2FR | 84%R 7%B 9%FR | Generative – flowering induction – ornamentals / strawberries everbearer / blackberries / … |
| 4RBW | 81%R 13%B 6%W | Medium Vegetative – compact crops production – leafy greens / herbs / propagation |
| 3RBW | 74%R 18%B 8%W | High Vegetative – cuttings – rooting – seeds – young plants |
| 4R2B3W | 75%R 9%B 16%W | Full spectrum / wide spectrum – wide application range – easy plant balance at high light intensities |
| Wavelength range [nm] | Photosyntesis | Further Effects | Further Effects | Further Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 – 280 | Harmful | |||
| 280 – 315 | Harmful | |||
| 315 – 380 | ||||
| 380 – 400 | Yes | |||
| 400 – 520 | Yes | Vegetative growth | ||
| 520 – 610 | Some | Vegetative growth | ||
| 610 – 720 | Yes | Vegetative growth | Flowering | Budding |
| 720 – 1000 | Germination | Leaf building and growth | Flowering | |
| > 1000 | Converted to heat |
Multiple power and light levels for an ideal match
| CoolGrow® Linear 60Photon Flux up to 193µmol/s per bar
|  | | CoolGrow® Linear 40Photon Flux up to 131µmol/s per bar
| |
Market leading light efficacy
A specific spectrum is not only important for specific growth results.
It also allows you to work at an absolute maximal light efficiency, which at the end determines more that 50% of you annual costs to grow in a vertical farm.
The impact of light efficiency is in many times seriously underestimated.
See the year-round production with continuous lighting, the efficacy of the grow lights is even more important than in a greenhouse.
Take an average crop with 16 hours of light per day, that makes roughly 5800 burning hours of your lamps in a full year.
Numbers tell more than words…
A canopy with lettuce – light level 200μmol/sm²
- Lamp 1 - Light efficacy 2.3μmol/J
You will consume 86.96 watts per m² per hour
Annual consumption per m² = 5800hrs x 86.96W = 504KW
At a cost of 10 cents per KW that makes 50.4€ per m² - Lamp 2 - Light efficacy 3.2μmol/J
You will consume 62.5 watts per m² per hour
Annual consumption per m² = 5800hrs x 86.96W = 362.5KW
At a cost of 10 cents per KW that makes 36.25€ per m²
Take in account that a square meter of canopy at 200μmol/sm² light level costs you around 120€.
That’s 17.14€ per m² if you depreciate it at 7 years.
Conclusion
The focus in lighting for vertical farming should clearly be at the opex and energy consumption side, more than on the capex and depreciation.
Just on energy you see already that system 1 compared to system 2 cost you 14.15€ per square meter per year more on energy, that’s a 39% higher energy bill.
CoolGrow® VF Vertical Farming & research Dynamic spectrum
This unique grow light platform for vertical farming applications combines all the best a grow light can offer.
By embedding LED grow lights in the process of double glass manufacturing, the CoolGrow® VF comes as a one-of-a-kind complete grow light plate, directly IP65 waterproof and with a single power connection for a complete surface.
The CoolGrow® VF generates a PPFD light output of up to 600µmol/sm².Standard size of the board is 1.20 meter by 0.75m but the size is scalable in both length and width up to 4 square meters per setup.
With a stunning efficacy of up to 3µmol/J (fix spectrum only and spectrum depending) the CoolGrow® VF is an absolute market leader in the creation of efficient plant lighting for a wide score of vertical farming applications.
Unique light distribution
Extensive research has led to a unique light distribution concept which allows crop lighting uniformity from a distance as few as 7 centimeters from the grow light!
By this unique feature a lot of space can be gained in the height when constructing a multi-layer vertical farm.
This light homogeneity is achieved by a combination of special led placement in combination with hazing the glass.
At one side the hazing improves the light homogeneity, at the other side it leads to a much deeper crop penetration rate compared to direct light beams.
 |  |
Light is more homogeneously distributed under diffuse light (B) compared with direct light (A) where many sun flecks in the middle and lower part of the canopy are seen. (Li et al., 2014a/b, photo courtesy of Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture, Bleiswijk)
Higher PPFD values through reflection
Free extra micromoles almost sounds like a fairytale… never the less it is completely realistic to achieve.
The secret is to be found in optical reflection and how you can benefit from that.
Besides light reflection on the crop itself which varies from 10 to 20 percent, vertical farming installations with fix plug distances and young crops have many times enormous open space where photons which land will not contribute to plant growth.
By using white and reflective materials in the installation a big percentage of that spilled light can be reflected towards the CoolGrow® VF.
The CoolGrow® VF on its turn will re-reflect those light photons back to the plant canopy, resulting in… free extra photons.
CoolGrow® VF Research
Besides fix predefined plant growth spectra, we have developed a one-of-a-kind alternative for the broad world of plant lighting research.
The CoolGrow® VF Research features 4 individual controllable spectrum channels, which seamlessly can be altered in the CoolControls® web app to compose the spectrum like you desire for your research.
Each channel delivers a light output up to 100µmol/s what makes it the ideal test platform for a wide score of plant lighting research.
The standard research panel is equipped with 4 different spectra consisting of red 660nm, blue 450nm, far red 730nm and lime.
Example of implementation of 3 pcs CoolGrow® VF Research in a Danish trolley system
