Having commissioned multiple lighting upgrades, I am surprised it has taken this long for me to address the subject of lighting. Lighting it appears is a contentious subject. Some people like it bright, some like it dark, some get headaches and some just moan for the sake of moaning.
All in all, lighting has taught me some invaluable lessons and provided some entertaining moments along the way. Whilst working for a local authority I recall being called down to the planning department where I had to speak to a man who was complaining about the differing lighting levels presented at his desk compared to the desk next door to him.
I myself could not see a difference but I thought I better hear him out. During his exhaustive explanation, I realised that the person this man sat next to, was my line managers wife Sarah, who was now smiling at me. Realising my line manager liked a joke from time to time. I interrupted the man and said……
“Yeah nice wind up mate”
The gentleman's look of total shock should have been a major clue to me, but I left the planning department anyway and headed upstairs to confront my line manager. My line manager had gone home for the day, so I forgot about it.
That is until the next day when I found myself back in the arse kicking room. It hadn’t been a wind up at all. The gentlemen in question had put in a complaint about my attitude. Another fine mess Jeremy.
The gentleman to be fair may have had a point. The lights above his desk were warm white fluorescent tubes. Whereas one desk over they were cool white. This can affect different people in different ways. This is a fine example of the crazy level of specification possible with lighting, particularly in more recent years since the affordability of LED’s.
When you think of lighting, you probably think of lighting offices or lighting warehouses, or street lighting or just getting annoyed just because some moron has yet again walked away leaving the lights on. Surely it is time these people got custodial sentences?
Lighting is amazing and can do some really beautiful things. The scientific world has been growing all kinds of things under fluorescent tubes and halogen flood lights for decades. And the quality and delivery of that light spectra has a massive impact on what is being grown.
Generally, when you’re growing under artificial light you will want a lot of royal blue, red and far red in your light spectra as these colours assist photosynthesis. This is what is known as Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density. What a mouthful that is, but it is actually science and relates to the energy in the light that produces photosynthesis. The image below is of the light spectra delivered by a fluorescent tube note how spiky it is and the poor levels of royal blue, red and far red.
When I worked with scientists, I found it almost impossible to convince them to switch to growing under LED tubes. LED tubes, particularly those designed for horticulture, deliver a superior light spectra. See image below
Note the sexy smooth lines. Note the ample amount of royal blue, red and far red present within the spectra. So why were the scientists I worked with such a tough nut to crack? The reason was simple. They had been growing and running experiments under fluorescent tubes since the dawn of time. And, who was I?, a non-academic? a non-scientist? telling them to change their ways?
“Who the hell did I think I was?”
Well move on several months and I have convinced one brave maverick scientist to grow some of her crop under LED tubes. Two months have passed since the trial began and I bump into this dare devil scientist outside one of the many coffee outlets present on the research park.
Interested to learn how the experiment is progressing I enquired how her plants were doing. The scientist looked at me and said……..
“Jeremy, you are an absolute Genius!!!!!!”
I will just say that they were her words not mine. But this is something I have long suspected. You may laugh? And you may accuse me of having a swollen head. However, the scientist went on to remark how good her crop was. She was completely amazed.
“Well how do you like those apples?”
Not that we grew any apples. Although, we did grow purple tomatoes. But that is another story. Moving on and half of what is grown at that research park is now grown under an LED light spectra.
Growing under LED has several benefits. Firstly, you can specify the light spectra to what you want to grow. There you have it. There is an efficiency gain right there! If you are specifying the light to your growing needs, you won’t be wasting any power producing any light spectra you don’t require.
Secondly, LED lights are significantly cheaper to run. Thirdly, they don’t generate anywhere near as much heat as their equivalents. Which if you are growing in a growth room means you don’t have to consume energy to manage this heat output. Fourthly, LED last longer which means they fail less and require less maintenance.
This is the first of many lighting blogs I have planned. As I said at the beginning, lighting is such a contentious subject. So much of our understanding or lack of, comes down to our perception of lighting. However, despite all of this, when it is comes to lighting I have one question to ask.
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