Dutch tomato grower Lans is installing 100%LED in one of his greenhouses. The company opted for the ClimaLED3 system by QWestland, whichcombines dimmable LED lights with a ventilator blowing the heat rising from thearmatures back onto the plants. “It’s hard to work in the purple-red light”,said grower Leo van der Lans when explaining his choice for white LEDs. Of course this was not the only reason het opted for the ClimaLED3.
“LED lighting should result in energy saving anyway. You also hope foran increase in production, but energy saving is the first objective,” accordingto Leo van der Lans. At the end of the year the companywill have 100% LED lighting installed in 3 hectare of its greenhouses.
The grower explained that the company had littleconfidence in a hybrid solution. “For us, the future is LED, and a hybrid-system onlyreplaces the traditional top-light, while the production does not increases.” And that isnot the only obstacle. “In the purple-red light you cannot assess a cropand harvesting becomes very difficult. That is not the direction we want to goto.”
ClimaLED3
That is why Lans opted for the ClimaLED3 by Qwestland. Grower Vincent van der Lans has been involved in the development of the lighting system for a longer period and has confidence in the concept. ClimaLED3 consists of dimmable LED lightsources, equipped with an independent adjustable ventilator. “The lamps are being cooled and the heat can be used in the crop as it is distributed with a special fan. The system is also quite small and only takes a little natural light away. It’s one of those designs you wonder why no one has come up with before”, says Leo.
According to Qwestland, heat distribution is indeed an important point on which their system differentiates from other LEDs. “Because of the vertical ventilation a more uniform climate is formed in the greenhouse and that decreases the chance of fungi and diseases. The circulated heat penetrates deep into the crop, reducing the energy requirement to heat the greenhouses by 10 to 50%,” estimates Laurenet van den Ende of Qwestland.
Moreover, the ventilators can be used when the lights are off – an extra tool to direct the growing process. The choice for not just red-blue lights, but the entire PAR light spectrum is a conscious one. “Particulary with all the colours from the spectrum the plant grows, because of all the different energy types. And working is much more pleasant because the light is white to the human eye.”
“But still, it is a new direction; you have to learn to work with it", the grower says. Leo is mostly referring to the changing climate. Because the heat of the lamps is blown in between the plants, the lights are an extra means of control. “You have to get used to it and you don’t know how to properly use it. That takes time, and you can only tell if it is working a year later, but still, no two winters are alike. But if it felt like a poor year but the results are good, you know in which direction you are heading. In the end it is about the complete picture.”
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