Grow Revolution

Here is what I know about LEDs: they use less electricity, and they create almost no heat. What else can you tell me about the LED technology? How do they produce light?

The important starting point to understand LED lighting and how it delivers electricity savings and heat reductions is that how it does this compared with HID lighting is the result of the fact that LED lighting delivers only those parts of the light spectrum that are required by plants.

HID lighting was never designed for plants in particular, but rather is a type of light designed to produce a light useful for human eyesight. Plants however do not need the full range of the visual spectrum that we humans require to see. To grossly simplify, plants essentially require light in what we would call the red and blue parts of the spectrum.

Much of the electricity that goes into a HID light is wasted because it produces parts of the light spectrum that are not useful to the plant. By only delivering the required spectrum, LEDs use less electricity and produce less heat.

With advances in LED technology, LEDs now exist in the appropriate spectrums that plants require and with sufficient output of light that LED lights can now be produced that provide the same growth results as HID. The type of LED that has made this possible is generically called a HI-Power LED although there are many levels of power and usefulness between the various types of Hi-Power LEDs available. If you see a LED which is called a Hi-Brightness LED, you can move on as that is old, inferior technology not up to the job.

How can a grower compare the new technology to standard HID lights?

In general, all types of HID lighting are “over producing” light energy beyond what the plant can use. In terms of the amount of light output, growers are of course used to comparing lights based on lumens. One of the best ways of determining if a LED grow light manufacturer is wasting your time is if they describe the light output of their products in terms of lumens which is a measurement of light output from the perspective of what our own eyes see and makes no sense in the context of LEDs. The measurement you are looking for is the amount of photosynthetic photons per unit of time, known as the number of micro-mols per second. An example would be 310 µmol/s. If you are able to obtain a credible micro-mol figure for two different LED lamps you have a starting point to compare one LED grow light to another much like you would do now by comparing the lumens produced by two different types of bulbs.

Your lights can either be air cooled, or water cooled. Can you tell me what factors to consider when choosing between the two options?

There are a number of factors which could lead a grower to opt for one product versus the other.

The air-cooled model, the SmartLamp, is without a doubt the easiest and most simple light for most growers to understand as it truly is “plug and forget”. No extra bulbs, no extra ballast. So for a grower who might be concerned about perceived complexity of a water cooling light, it would be the choice.

The water cooled light was designed with commercial growers in mind. The use of the water-cooling has two main benefits. The first is near total removal of excess heat from the grow space. One of the primary uses of it by commercial growers is to recycle this heated water in cooler months to heat around plants using various systems.

The other primary advantage of the SmartBars is the low profile of the bars which allows growers to grow on multiple levels thus multiplying significantly the yield per square foot in their grow spaces.

An additional advantage of the SmartBars is the ability to get at plants somewhat from the sides, resulting in better canopy penetration options.

At the trade show in San Francisco I was able to check out your products. The light set up I was most impressed with was the T1 Smart Bar. I was told they produce as much light, if not more, than a standard 1000 watt bulb, and they are specifically designed for growing hydroponically. How were you able to develop this product?

The SmartBar is sold as a kit of two bars is the equivalent to a 1000 watt HPS. The wattage equivalency was established by Agriculture Canada in lettuce tests comparing our lights to HPS lights.

Theoreme Innovation began in 2004 with the research of two engineers in Montreal whose goal was to develop truly leading edge grow lights for the commercial grow industry. Since founding the company at that time they and their team have spent significant time and effort (and money) in the fundamental research required to achieve the necessary mixture of spectrums to promote full plant growth and flowering. This has meant a great deal of basic agronomy and engineering research to deliver products that deliver real results.

There are many manufacturers of LEDs and the differences between each LED can be quite substantial. Theoreme has tested all of them and continues to do so in order to be at the leading edge of this technology. However, Theoreme is not just a lighting company. At base it is a company whose focus is on plant science and aiding growers to grow more efficiently.

What sets Theoreme Innovation apart from other sellers, resellers and distributors of LED grow lights is that their products are the result of a lot of basic research and engineering rather than just trying to quickly repackage technology and products that others have made. From the start, Theoreme’s founders were committed to doing the basic research to develop a long run vision and solutions for the grow industry.

The SmartBar is the best example of this approach – the low height of the light and the water cooling are not the result of technical requirements but rather the lamp is the result of an analysis of what commercial growers needed.

With the capital cost of greenhouses and grow spaces being around 30% of the cost of commercial grow production, Theoreme decided that a key goal was to allow growers to grow on multiple vertical levels thus cutting that 30% figure dramatically. In one commercial grow operation where this light is used, the grower has increased production fourfold in the same space. The means that the 30% is maybe something like 7.5%. That is a huge capital savings for the grower which can be translated onto bottom line savings.

The water cooling is a result of growers needing to evacuate all heat from greenhouses and grow spaces in warm periods. In cold periods, this heat production can be more usefully directed around plants because research has shown that this is the most efficient use of the energy in the whole grow process compared with just letting the heat escape from the light into the greenhouse and be circulated around.

I switch my 1000 watt light bulbs every time I do a turn because I notice that even after 12 weeks they start to get hotspots and just don’t perform as well as when they are brand new. How often do I have to replace the bulbs in your lights?

All manufacturers of LED grow lights that use HI-Power LEDs produce lights that have an LED lifespan of 50,000 hours. While in theory LEDs will last much longer than that, like HID lights, they lose luminous output after 50,000 hours and should not continue to be used.

To put that in perspective, 50,000 hours is around 11 years for most fulltime growers operating 12 hour light days. There is some light output decay below the 50,000 hours but it is about 5% which is minimal. So rather than replace your lights ever year or so as most growers do, your Smartlamps will last for many years without having to buy new bulbs each year.

One factor which can limit the lifespan of LED grow lights would be if the fans which cool them are not rated long enough to last the 50,000 hours of the LEDs themselves. The Theoreme lights have specially selected long-life fans designed to last the 50,000 hours. It is not clear that all LED grow light manufacturers with less expensive lights have put the same long life fans in their lights.

Tell me about your online savings calculator? It’s every growers dream to cut their power bill. How much can an average grower really save?

In terms of percentage savings, the SmartLamp 600 ProBloom uses 330 watts while a typical HPS light and ballast will use 680 watts. The SmartBar 1000 uses 430 watts versus a typical 1175 watts for a 1000 watt HPS and ballast. In percentage terms, you are reducing your electricity bill due to light operation by 52 to 63% depending on the model.

The next area of savings can be due to reduced heat production. The Smartlamps produce significantly less heat than HID, probably in the area of 65% less than HPS. While they aren’t cool to the touch, unlike an HPS you can actually touch the glass without fear of burn.

How much these heat savings translate into electricity savings can be complicated depending on whether the grower has to cool the grow space and how they do it. But as a rule of thumb if you are using air conditioning you could probably add another 30% to 40% in electricity savings on top of the savings to run the light.

The GrowRevolution.com website has an interactive Savings Calculator that can estimate the savings due to cooling based on use of air conditioning or fan use as long as you know the Energy Efficiency Rating of your air conditioning system which should be marked on the unit.

How much this all works out to in real dollars depends on how much you pay for your electricity. With rates running from 7 cents to 38 cents in different areas of the country, the dollar savings can vary enormously.

As a general rule though, when you take the electricity savings plus the replacement bulb savings together, the higher initial cost of buying our lights will be paid back in 1 to 4 years. After that you are putting more money in your pockets.

As an example, if you pay 15 cents per kWh for power and run a 600 watt HPS with a modern air conditioner and replace your bulbs yearly, it should cost you around $411 per year to run your HPS light. Using a SmartLamp that would cost $154. If you are paying 30 cents per kWh like in a number of states you would spend $722 per year versus $ 209 per year with the Smartlamp.

What separates your products from the competitors products?

Firstly the Smartlights are the only lights that are government research lab tested capable of replacing 600 and 1000 watt HPS systems. A number of the manufacturers claim to be 400 watt replacements or even 600 watt replacements, but I’ve yet to see independent test results to back them up or seen any impressive real world test results on demanding, flowering plants.

The second key difference is spectral mix. No manufacturer has the agronomist tested mixture that goes beyond merely red and blue LEDs. The easiest way for any grower to see the results of these two factors is to go online to www.greenpinelane.com where LED hobbyist Steve Fortier out of Massachusetts has tested various LEDs systems. I have yet to see any test of competing LED lights that even comes close to the results in terms of quality, quantity and speed to grow of the Smartlights.

If a grower was thinking about making the switch to LEDs, but nervous about the risk in trying something new, what would you say to them to put their mind at ease?

Growers are right to be skeptical because there have been a lot of overblown claims of the ability of LEDs in the past and unfortunately previous LED technologies, especially inexpensive LED technologies imported from the Far East, were brought to market by manufacturers with little real knowledge of the science of growing, commitment to honest presentation of the facts or a long-term vision and the financial resources required to develop this new technology.

The first thing to remember with LEDs is that there is no free lunch or miracle LED product that costs nothing and eliminates power consumption.

The good news is that real third generation LED lights now exist and make switching to LED the only smart long term option for growers. The tough part can be separating good LED lights from bogus ones.

Do your homework first before deciding on which product to buy. You will never find a serious LED for less than $600 dollars so forget about cheap panels.

Make sure you are comparing apples with apples and not apples and oranges. Many manufacturers stretch the truth about the equivalency of their products and their ability to produce results with demanding flowering plants varies widely.

The best approach is to look at actual results. To my mind the best place for a hobby grower is still www.greenpinelane.com and Steve is a great resource for the curious.

Many growers are immediately turned off by the upfront cost of buying LED lights. However, what many growers forget is that they pay about as much even with HID lights once you add the cost of bulbs in except that we forget all those trips to the hydro store over the years.

As an example, using a 600 HPS system, over 11 years you will probably buy 11 bulbs for a total of around $1000 to $1200 plus maybe $400 for a good HPS ballast and reflector system. That is the same price or maybe a bit more than buying a SmartLamp 600 system. So there is really no cost difference between the two systems except that our systems are an upfront cost while the HPS system keeps you going back to your hydro store. The flip side is that with our systems the electricity savings are substantial and ongoing.

In fact electricity costs are the primary cost of running a light while the bulbs and the equipment costs are small in comparison. Overall, your electricity costs will run you something like 70% to 90% of the total cost of owning and running a grow light over the lifespan of the ballast. That is where a grower looking to save money has to focus their attention for sure.

The final point to remember is that every grow is different. As growers we have had many years to adapt to growing under HID lights and in switching over to LED there will be an adaptation period.

The best approach is to do your homework, start with one light and test in your own circumstances and then once you are comfortable with the advantages to switch the rest of your lights.

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