San Francisco, California, USA
August 3, 2015
LumiGrow, Inc., the leading provider of LED lighting solutions for agricultural and horticultural applications, today announced the release of the LumiGrow LumiBulb™ series, a direct replacement for the incandescent bulbs used in environmental control chambers and greenhouses. The LumiGrow ECC-R™ and ECC-FR™ LED light bulbs provide plants with Red (660nm) and Far Red (740nm), respectively, and use 75 percent less energy than the incandescent bulbs they replace.
While other energy-efficient retrofit products, such as compact fluorescent bulbs, produce general illumination, they do not produce the Red and Far Red of incandescent bulbs. In independent laboratory studies conducted by both academic and industry researchers, the LumiGrow ECC-R bulb’s Red levels were shown to match those of 100-Watt bulbs, and the ECC-FR bulb’s Far Red levels slightly exceeded those of 100-Watt bulbs. Researchers can create custom color blends to achieve desired growth effects by simply varying the ratio of ECC-R bulbs to ECC-FR bulbs. The LumiGrow ECC’s dimming feature enables further fine-tuning of light levels.
Governments worldwide are restricting the use of wasteful incandescent lights. For example, the sale of 100-Watt bulbs is prohibited in the European Union. By September 2011, the EU will have banned the sale of nearly all incandescent bulbs. In the US, incandescent bulbs will be phased out beginning with 100-Watt bulbs in 2012 and ending with 40-Watt bulbs in 2014. Australia has already placed an outright ban on the sale of the bulbs. The LumiGrow ECC bulbs simply screw into standard sockets, making them a straightforward retrofit that ensures compliance with new legislation.
The LumiGrow ECC series bulbs operate at just 17 Watts, producing annual savings of over 500 kilowatt-hours compared to 100-Watt bulbs. In addition, they avoid the electrical cooling requirements inherent to incandescent lights because they do not emit infrared light. An estimated 80 percent of the energy burden of environmental chambers results from removing the unwanted infrared energy generated by incandescent bulbs. For example, replacing 45 100-Watt incandescent bulbs in an average (8×8) style chamber with LumiGrow ECC bulbs would reduce the heat load of an environmental growth chamber by 176,000 BTU’s (18 tons) per day. That’s enough to cool an additional 1000 sq feet of office space all day.
LumiGrow ECC bulbs last 10 to 20 times longer than standard bulbs, minimizing capital outlay and ongoing operating costs. Users can expect to recoup their investment in less than two years by significantly reducing power usage, cooling requirements and maintenance costs.
“The academic community has clamored for an LED solution to reduce the high costs and energy demands associated with operating growth chambers and greenhouses,” said Kevin Wells, founder and CEO, LumiGrow. He added, “We’re pleased to answer the call with the LumiGrow ECC series.”
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