Every plant or vegetable requires food, water, appropriate warmth, CO2, and light in varying degrees to grow and mature successfully. In an indoor growing environment, maintaining the proper light exposure with the most efficient power source to replicate outdoor growing conditions is one of the most important considerations.
The most significant advantage of a properly managed indoor grow environment is that plants can grow and mature throughout the year in any location. Since indoor horticulture is not limited to the same seasonal and daily fluctuations of light and temperature as outdoor growing, your indoor grow operations can produce more than one, even several harvests per year, depending on the plant's normal growing cycle.
While outdoor plantings depend primarily on the sun's energy to trigger photosynthesis, indoor growth requires optimal lighting powered or partially supplemented by an artificial energy source.
What you spend on powering your lighting can significantly affect your margins.
Creating the Perfect Environment with LED Lighting
Before addressing the most efficient way to power your indoor growing space, you should first understand the importance of delivering the best lighting spectrum and lighting type to the plants.
Light activates photosynthesis in plants. Photosynthesis is an essential process that converts light, water, and carbon dioxide into chemical energy that becomes the "food" to grow the plant. This chemical activity produces oxygen and glucose (sugars) that generate the energy needed for growth.
In typical outdoor growing environments, the amount of light or photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) a plant receives will vary depending on the time of day and the season. As a result, most plants can grow outdoors only during seasons when higher PAR levels are available.
Combining photo sensors for monitoring and control with regulated indoor LED lighting delivering optimized light spectrums, plants can experience optimal growth throughout the year.
Developing a Power Strategy
Energy costs to power the indoor horticulture lighting and maintain ideal environmental conditions can be excessive without proper control, a situation that can severely impact profitability.
While the sun provides all the energy for outside growing, indoor growers should install efficient, controllable power resources to maintain the perfect balance of light, temperature, and other accessories for optimized environmental balance. A centralized control hub can be positioned outside of the growing area to eliminate unwanted heat and other elements that may affect the perfect balance inside.
A leading horticultural solutions company, TSRgrow, recommends installing their TGHV Remote Power Server and using their lighting as a platform (LaaP) to monitor and manage lights and sensors.
TSRgrow's Remote Power Server can be remotely accessed via computer, tablet, or smartphone to monitor conditions from anywhere, analyze data, and apply the precise amount of power to maintain perfect conditions.
The TOTALgrow Solution:
- Delivers lighting as a platform
- Removes heat from the grow room, reducing HVAC operating costs
- Provides Cloud-based monitoring
- Sends notifications and alerts
- Maintains and stores historical data
- Enables schedule changes as needed
- Links with photo sensors to track precision lighting levels
TGHV Remote Power Servers also:
- Adjust to any power level
- Provide 24-hour monitoring of light levels, environment, and power usage
- Include built-in controls
- Eliminate on-fixture ballast impact (voltage control of fluorescent lighting)
- Can integrate with solar, cogeneration, or gas power for efficiency
- Are 100% tunable with customized settings, efficiency, and reduced capital expenditure
- Allow for centralized maintenance performed outside of the grow area
- Adaptable for best results
- Easy to Install: Plug n' Play
Different components of the light spectrum generate specific positive impacts during the growth cycle. Spectrum control produces the optimal light for each growth phase.
Contact TSRgrow, Experts in Indoor Grow Solutions
Maintaining the right balance of light, temperature, and other inputs in your grow operations without the proper controls, equipment, and knowledge can create expensive headaches.
For more information about setting up and properly equipping your grow operation, please contact a TSRgrow growing specialist today. Our team is always available to offer clarity, talk you through your needs, and help with the lighting and power strategy best for you.
