Upgrading lighting while preserving environmental control

Added on 11 August 2023

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Upgrading lighting while preserving environmental control

Cannabis market price compression across the country has pushed cultivators to explore new strategies to increase output and reduce operational costs. Power consumption is one of the leading contributors to those operational costs and, therefore, a clear target for identifying savings.

Although access to capital and the state of financial markets has made it difficult for many producers to securing funding for facility upgrades, many of the states most impacted by low market prices offer significant incentives and rebates through local utility providers or governmental agencies for energy efficient equipment purchases like high-efficiency LED lighting and HVAC units. Especially when combined with financing solutions, which urban-gro can help source for their customers, these programs allow legacy cultivation facilities to retrofit light fixtures at little to no out-of-pocket cost.

New, efficient LED fixtures provide cultivators the option to either maintain previous light levels while reducing energy usage, or to increase light intensity while matching their previous wattage. While most cultivators simply compare their crop value and electrical costs when facing this decision, both retrofit strategies have significant implications to environmental conditions.

When considering lighting system retrofits, it is important to evaluate the sensible load (heat generated) from lighting that needs to be removed by HVAC cooling systems and cultivators must also account for how a change in lighting will affect their ability to manage the latent load (moisture) created through plant transpiration. Put simply, lighting changes typically result in necessary adjustments to dehumidification requirements and reducing the wattage of cultivation lighting will often make the environment more difficult to control, despite a reduction in heat within the room.