If you were running a commercial grow what lights would you use?

Is hps still king or are a lot of commercial growers moving to other lights? Timber lights look great but i don't know how they would do on a large scale and if hps would beat them. What do you guys think?
 

whytewidow

Well-Known Member
Hlg 550 type builds.
Or even the big ass fotop 800 boards. Two per driver. Every 4 will cover 16'×16' roughly 1200 for a set of 4. They are big enough to eat up space per fixture. For probably under 5 grand. Which is cheap for a commercial setup. You could do 4 sets of 4. For 32'×32' plus the more you buy the cheaper rita will sell em to ya for.

Edit: and get em in a mix of 3k and 4k two of each per set of 4. Veg n flower and nvr have to move the plants
 

CobKits

Well-Known Member
if starting from scratch nothing touches LED for operating cost, even considering higher capital cost

operation of 1000 HPS cost $637/year at 12/12 and 0.15/kWh
at a typical efficiency bump of 20-40% over HPS, an equivalent 600-800W LED rig saves $125-$250 a year over HPS not including the bulb replacement, where most operations are going to spend $50 a year minimum per 1000W HPS

that savings does not even consider the following:
  • reduce capital cost of HVAC equipment by 20-40%
  • reduce operating cost of HVAC by 20-40+% (perhaps greater than expected as LED grown crops allow for higher environmental temp)
  • potential higher product output per facility if limited on electrical use (imagine you were not constrained by space as much as electrical draw, like an existing 400, 800, or 1600 amp service- the upgrading of which comes at a substantial cost)
 
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sethimus

Well-Known Member
fluence, progrowtech or the new gavita if money is not the limiting factor

smartgrowsystems if you are interested in vertical farming
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
I would still like to know if anyone is getting crop protection/insurance on a schedule 1 in this country??......the few legitimate ops in this state say no, but it is new here.

Again, Ul / etl means little if you're committing a crime...
 

Rahz

Well-Known Member
It depends. Similar return on investment over time could be less important for an investor. Low K DE bulbs supplemented with blue cobs could push the efficiency to 44-45% while keeping start up capital low.
 

sethimus

Well-Known Member
It depends. Similar return on investment over time could be less important for an investor. Low K DE bulbs supplemented with blue cobs could push the efficiency to 44-45% while keeping start up capital low.
you would still need labor to rearrange all the lights, or are you suggesting to just add cobs? then you would need more AC units for the increase in dissipated power
 

Rahz

Well-Known Member
Yea, just add 4 25w blue 1212s beside each 1000w 2000K DE. Near perfect spectrum, slightly less power than running straight DE... for instance for every 10 1000w units you would use, instead use 9 1100w units (DE + 100w cob) with the expectation of increased performance over 10,000w of full spectrum HID even at 100w less due to increased electrical efficiency and that sexy SPD.
 

nc208

Well-Known Member
Is hps still king or are a lot of commercial growers moving to other lights? Timber lights look great but i don't know how they would do on a large scale and if hps would beat them. What do you guys think?
I work in a commercial facility and we rock sunlight/hps for flower. Use mostly HPS for Veg and switched to Fluence for Nursery/ propagation from using T5.
 

Couch_Lock

Well-Known Member
Is hps still king or are a lot of commercial growers moving to other lights? Timber lights look great but i don't know how they would do on a large scale and if hps would beat them. What do you guys think?
Plasma lighting
(think super powered cmh).
 
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