Why it is important to clean your reflectors

You have to have 20/20 vision if you want to see with the naked eye how horticulture lighting installations can get smudged. For those who don’t have such eagle-eyed vision, there are always some helping hands: measuring systems which show that after a few months of growing, a layer of dirt has built up on the reflectors and the bulbs. At Lightshine Cleaning they can measure the pollution and Jeffrey van den Bogert also observes that growers realize more and more that pollution is costing them.

"The cost is still an important aspect when it comes to cleaning of lamps," Van den Bogert says. And that makes sense, he adds. "If you're not used to it, at first it may only seem like additional cleaning costs in an often already hectic crop rotation. But actually everything comes down to the proceeds. You do not find growers anymore that skip washing the roof because it is too expensive. The cost of that per m² is much higher than cleaning the reflectors and the bulbs. Still, growers have it done - because ultimately it is just more profitable."

In floriculture cleaning for the light intensive crops is even done twice a year. "With roses and lisianthus for example. These plants benefit from a lot of light, but the lamps also get dirty quite fast," says Van den Bogert. How much exactly? That was measured by Light Shine Cleaning. "After a few months, the efficiency drops to 97 or 98%. By washing the reflectors twice a year, the efficiency remains at 99%." Meanwhile large growers like Meewisse Roses, Ende Roses and Arend Roses opt for cleaning twice. And that's not the only saving. The life span is extended through proper maintenance. "Dust and dirt burn into the lamps. That does not benefit the lifespan."