Nurser 3 Lighting Design

What is a Lighting plan in horticulture?

A Lighting Plan in horticulture is a proposed design and choice of lighting fixtures, and location of lighting fixtures based on the physical layout and crop needs. It includes an overview of the number of fixtures, the light effects such as intensity, uniformity, and other considerations such as electricity use and budget. It can include different variants based on different optimizations. 

A good lighting plan takes the grower's goals into account, as well as crop type, growth stage and environmental conditions. 

Lighting planning for a vertical farm

New farming technologies and demand for local fresh produce mean that plants can now grow indoors without sunlight. Often these facilities are climate-controlled and grow a wide range of crops. They are perfect for propagating young plants, leafy greens, herbs and fruits, and to develop and researching new varieties. Benefits of vertical farming include fresh local produce, pesticide-free crops and achieving a high yield on a small land footprint. 

With our lighting- and plant expertise, HortiPower helps farmers to grow better indoors and provides a comfortable work environment that allows staff to see the crops well.

Below are ten considerations for lighting planning in a vertical farm

Space optimization

The property and climate-controlled rooms can be expensive to acquire and fit out. Especially when urban farms are located near prime property, rental costs are relatively high compared to farmland or greenhouses. Space optimization is therefore an important revenue lever. The more layers you have the growing space you have and the higher your marginal profits will be. Nurser 3 and Nurser 4 are designed for multi-layer indoor growth. This is different compared to growing in a grow-tent or greenhouse where there is only one layer and more space to make fixtures bigger and heavier. 

Indoor farms often use grow tables or grow racks to grow indoor. Growing on multiple tiers/ layers/ levels can increase the yield of a farm. A Lighting plan helps you to plan, design and simulate the best options for your space.

Here are some lighting design strategies that an urban farmer can pursue.

Use a slim fixture to maximize the number of layers

The Nurser 3 requires a height of 35mm and enables installation as close as 150mm from the top leaf. This enables you to maximize the number of growth layers. For example, four or sometimes even six layers are possible with a normal ceiling height. 

An indoor farm with grow tables and grow racks. Using a slim fixture enables you to maximise growing space and maximum tiers per shelf.

Use a lightweight fixture

The floor has often a maximum load per sqm, as does the mechanical structure. The Nurser 3 weights 170gram per 1200mm / 4ft length, making it very lightweight and enabling you to allocate weight for crops, water, nutrients, and the mechanical structure.

Maximize lighting optics and reduce spill light

Nurser 3 has a wide beam angle to disperse the light well. The beam angle is an angular expression that reveals how light is emitted from a light source. When lights are installed close to crops they should feature a wide beam angle to disperse the light well and avoid bright spots. Another target in lighting design is to make light uniform, in the middle as well as along the edges.  

A 3d lighting simulation of an indoor farm with a possible design to reduce spill light and maximise efficiency

Installing at the vertical or horizontal axis

The Nurser 3 is 1200mm /4 ft long and there are also other lengths available. These lengths can be used to your advantage. Making grow-shelves or grow-tables 1200mm wide /4ft can be a good design layout, as you can make the length of the table as long as you want with little spill light. Some growers that are using Nurser 3 have grow systems with a length of 8 meters/ 26ft. Using this layout will yield in more productive growing space than with shelves. Shelves are a good option if you’re new to vertical farming, or prefer more flexibility in your layout. 

For shelves a dotless line of light

If you are installing lights along the horizontal/ linear line then you can connect the Nurser 3 lights without any dark gap. This ensures that for a long line (up to 18 meters/ 15pcs) you will have uniform lighting. This dotless installation is good for crops and also makes your farms look well structured and well arranged.

A 3d lighting simulation of an indoor grow rack helps to assess the intensity, uniformity and efficiency of a proposed lighting design

Use the right spacing

The Nurser 3 comes with extension cables and if you are installing lights along the vertical line then you can easily adjust the spacing for the lights. For vertical farming the best spacing is 10cm/ 4” to 15cm/ 6”. The closer the spacing the higher the light intensity will be and you can easily get an intensity up to 180 micromols with at least 50% of deep red which is great for most urban farms. 

Use energy-efficient fixtures and design

Energy is one of the highest operating costs of indoor farms. The Nurser 3 is a very energy-efficient grow-light and satisfies the requirements for energy efficiency in norms such as DLC or EcoDesign. The Nurser 3 is only 20watts and enables you to bring the light much closer to the plant (without uniformity issues). In short, the light that the fixture emits will reach the plants and is used for photosynthesis while there is little light ‘hanging in the air’. We’ve made different set-ups with higher wattage fixtures, however, these lights need to be installed further away from the plants and in doing so lose efficiency because not all light is reaching the plant. 

Reduce Heat

A benefit of using low-wattage lights is that they emit less heat. An external PSU can also generate additional heat. The Nurser 3 has an internal power supply and uses a passive cooling method. The LED beam itself is cool, but the LED chips dissipate heat and the electronic components require a running temperature. The ambient temperature of Nurser 3 can go up to around 1 degree at a 10cm / 4” distance. 

Use the right spectrum for plants and people

This is essential for vertical farming. Since there is no sunlight, the plants must get all their lighting needs for photosynthesis from the grow lights. For photosynthesis, the main colors are deep red and blue. Nurser 3 features 100 % photosynthetic effective light and the spectrum combination was developed after extensive research of over 65000 combinations. The light also features light in the green, yellow and white range. This is because a small amount of these colors can have beneficial effects on plants. A good lighting design will also look at how people will experience the farm and that is one of the reasons why we don’t recommend purple light in vertical farms. Purple grow lights (consisting of red and blue) can cause dry eyes and discomfort for staff. It also makes visible inspection of crops more difficult for the human eye. Many vertical farms appreciate the color that Nurser 3 emits as it also allows them to take photos of their fresh produce for marketing purposes. The Nurser 3 has a Color Rendering Index (CRI) for the human eye of 70 which is similar to the requirement in a park or road.

In general do not include UV

UV can help trigger plants and it is more of steering and triggering light vs photosynthesis light. UV can be harmful to the human eye or skin. Therefore UV does not belong to general (grow) lighting regulations and safety norms. Since UV is below 400nm, the human eye is less able to perceive this light. This is why we don’t include UV, in general, grow lights. If vertical farms would like to use UV, we suggest they to use specific UV lights that are well marked and have an indicator that shows they are on and sensors to switch them off while people are present. Staff should also be trained. 

Why HortiPower?

Proven lights

Our lights are used by companies like Dole, universities like Wageningen and farms like Urban Greens. We’ve done projects in the USA, Europe and Asia. 

Plant science + Lighting experts

Our lights are designed around plants, starting from plant science and combining it with our expertise in lighting science and manufacturing.

User friendly

We love to see our users satisfied and successful. We offer help in lighting design and consultancy to make lights work for you and help you grow your business.

Financing

We offer light-as-a-service which is primarily a financing service to give you a headstart, so you can start growing quickly with little investment, and pay for the lights are you grow, harvest and sell your produce. 

Lead time

We’re professional and can scale up to large projects, yet we’re personal and offer fast lead times.