When sky - gamey push cost threatened business sector continuity , Rosa Danica A / S , a leading Danish manufacturer of potted plants , ferment to Hortilux for advice on ways to tighten its ignition cost . Despite some reservations about LEDs , the society decided to invest in a intercrossed HPS / LED system . “ I now have absolutely no doubts about LED anymore . The savings are in line with our calculations , and this twelvemonth , we ’ve achieved the best mathematical product lineament ever , ” suppose owner and CEO Torben Moth Madsen .
Producing around 10.5 million plants yearly on 11 hectares , and with around a hundred employee , Rosa Danica A / S is one of the leading agriculturist of potted plants in Denmark . Owner and CEO Torben Moth Madsen establish the ship’s company together with his married woman back in 1987 , originally as a small-scale cucumber nursery before gradually evolving to bring out pot rose , Campanula and Schlumbergera . Nowadays , the party ’s plants are sell through legion major grocery , DIY , and horticulture Sir Ernst Boris Chain throughout Europe .
Darker part of Europe“Our aim is to supply beautiful and durable potted plants in exactly the color that consumer demand , ” submit Madsen . “ We produce almost all year round , but our main sales time of year for roses is from Valentine ’s twenty-four hours until August . Then we start building up for the next year ’s production in the other autumn onwards . However , we ’re in the dark part of Europe . We have 15 % less light in the wintertime than in the Netherlands , for example , and fountain typically come with us two weeks subsequently than in Amsterdam . This mean we need contrived light because pink wine are very tender plants . If you do n’t maintain the ripe temperature and light levels , you’re able to get numerous problem with diseases , specially mould , ” he explains .
Therefore , the ship’s company has been using assimilation light up right from the start . “ We ’d always been felicitous with the HPS lamps , which we ’ve been source from Hortilux for around 15 age now . Over the years , we ’d done a distich of trial of LED lighting , but we stay unconvinced that it was the right direction to go for roses . We needed the heating plant produced by the HPS lamps as well as the light , ” recalls Madsen . “ But then in 2022 , our power bill went sky high – from just a few cent to 50 cent per kW . We began to wonder whether we could even conduct on with the company at all . But I did n’t want to lease our employees down , many of whom have been with us for several geezerhood or even 10 . ”
Need for a young solution“We bet that we ask to reduce our energy economic consumption by 50 % to stay on in business , ” he retain . “ Our heating costs were already quite scummy thanks to the manipulation of dominion warming , so we decided to invite some lighting suppliers to make out and discuss some potential solution with us . gratuitous to say , Hortilux was at the top of our list because of our long - standing and close family relationship . ”
The Hortilux team suggest an LED / HPS hybrid system . This would allow for the Department of Energy - efficiency benefits of LED lighting but with the supererogatory option to turn on the HPS lamps if quick visible radiation was needed .
“ The project move surprisingly fast , with the first lights being supplied around eight weeks after our initial discussion , ” call back the CEO .
Sleepless nightsThe young system was installed by Kemp & Lauritzen for 3 hectares of rosaceous production at the cultivator ’s handsome adeptness , cover approximately half of the full production area there . “ It was a true plug - and - play exchange of 1,000W HPS to 1,000W LEDs . But it was a passably tense time for me just after the raw lamp had been fitted . I had a few insomniac nighttime thinking about how thought-provoking it would be if the system did n’t work , ” he allow . “ Of naturally , we were used to seeing the yellow light from the HPS lamp , so we had to get used to the ‘ colourless ’ light-emitting diode lighting . I feel a lot happier after a couple of week once we saw that the plants were growing well . ”
“ Another big motion was whether the system would in reality surrender the vigour savings in cable with our calculations , ” he says . “ But I ’m pleased to say that the real - life sentence upshot are very close to the prediction . Our current superpower white plague is slightly higher than expected , but that ’s because we ’ve been overly cautious out of fear of not reach the works enough visible radiation . Next year , we will have a muckle more experience and be less afraid . ”
sound merchandise lineament and zero wastageQuality - wise , Madsen is more than satisfied with the hybrid system too . “ It ’s working bright . I ’ve never seen anything like it , ” he exclaims . “ I now have absolutely no doubts about LED any longer . This yr , we ’ve achieved the good product quality ever . When grading the plants just before shipping , we definitely have a much depressed B - quality percent . And even in the darkest time period , almost all works are robust enough to become a fully develop product , so we have well-nigh zero wastage . ”
So , how on the nose has the unexampled intercrossed system conduce to these improvements in industrial plant calibre ? “ In the past , we saw that as the plants matured and the foliage became more impenetrable , some of the lower leaves in the pots would turn yellow due to not receiving enough light . Now , it seems that the LED light get across the foliage much better , right on down to the base of the industrial plant , so the problem with yellow leafage has now almost entirely disappeared , ” says Madsen .
“ Hortilux provided us with excellent support , include drafting for the correct installing of the lamps and help with the unlike types of lenses to distribute the light correctly , ” he adds . “ Paul van der Valk , who is our main point of contact at Hortilux , knows our company very well and is able to ask the proper hoi polloi with the right knowledge to get this labor done successfully . ”
In the final stage of the undertaking , the grower fitted a section of the nursery with Hortilux ’s novel dimmable LED Inner Light . “ These are also work very well . In fact , we ’ve already removed all the HPS lamps there because we realise that we had n’t used them for months . And I doubt that we will ask them much in the future tense , peculiarly because the winters seem to be catch milder , ” states Madsen . “ Now we know that LED really go , I ca n’t wait to install it in the stay on three hectares of our rose product facility – and perhaps not even as a hybrid system in the futurity , but 100 % LED , ” he concludes .
