@growopowners @mastergrowers @DispensaryOwners Your feedback on the breakdown attached or any case study info on savings would be great!
Cannabis Grow Operation - Air Conditioning Savings Analysis with LED Grow Lights.pdf (56.6 KB)
@growopowners @mastergrowers @DispensaryOwners Your feedback on the breakdown attached or any case study info on savings would be great!
Cannabis Grow Operation - Air Conditioning Savings Analysis with LED Grow Lights.pdf (56.6 KB)
I can tell you the savings are TREMENDOUS! I grow in Southern AZ where the temps can routinely top 115°F in the summer…often for days or weeks on end! This puts a lot of stress on AC systems. The switch to LED/CMH from traditional HID has been very appreciable. Definitely worth considering, even given the high upfront costs associated with LED’s.
I look at LED’s a lot like I looked at flat-screen TV’s around the year 2005: they were, bulky, inefficient, very expensive and let’s face it: scarce! As time progressed and the consumer demanded a variety in the marketplace, manufacturers stood up to meet that demand. Manufacturers in China flooded the American market with cheap technology and the price of these goods plummeted. Now look at how cheap and available LED TV’s are today. Furthermore, I challenge you to find the old CRT screens. Good luck on that quest! I view HID lights the same way I view CRT screens: old, dated, inefficient, and quickly fading away in popularity.
You will be glad you made the switch from HID’s!
Can you clarify your cost analysis? The document you linked and the Excel spreadsheet seem to indicate that a 432 watt LED fixture replaces a 1000W DE HPS with a 4’ x 4’ coverage area.
A brand new 1000W Gavita Pro DE HPS delivers approximately 1700 umol/s at an efficiency of 1.7umol/watt. Does the 432 watt fixture output a comparable level of PPF?
I think that there is zero denying that traditional HID can get you a fuller yield, and that they tend to have a more complete spectrum than LEDs. However from a cost analysis standpoint, and technological innovation abilities, LEDs are the future 110%.
From my research, if you’re running LEDs within the 600-660W range (which is where you want to be if you want to compare to 1000W HID) you instantly see an almost 40% reduction is costs right there. When you’re running large sites like up here in Canada, that’s exponentially HUGE!
Then when you start bringing in HVAC costs, I have seen an average of 50% in total power savings when looking at studies conducted in similar climates and grows to mine. I looked to operations in Alaska for the majority of this data, but that’s all I can tell you about my data points for now.
If you’re in hotter climates like @Growernick then I can only imagine the costs savings being even more worthwhile.
I think we also need to be conscious of our consumption. The reality is that creating demand only creates pollution, and so it is our responsibility as manufacturers to reduced our usage to do our part to protect our mother earth.
Im not on the bandwagon here. When i was total HID/HPS temps were high, bills were up. Made the switch a few years ago to total LED. My costs have stayed the same truthfully. Mind you im Tier 3 power cost. So there is that. All i sucessfully did was spend a ton of cash on LED lighting.