With the extension to the lighting strategy in Connext software version 914, growers can create the right balance between lighting and energy costs. By linking lighting to electricity management, your electricity consumption always stays within the set limits. It is even possible to link your electricity consumption to the balancing market (regional real-time grid balance between electricity supply and demand).
Modulating and dimming
Modulating involves adapting different light sources (solar and LED) to meet the light demand. Connext 914 allows lamps to modulate on the light the crop is already receiving from the sun. Priva Connext uses data from the PAR sensor or Solarimeter for this purpose.
With separate software, LED lighting can be dimmed. By including LED control and monitoring in Priva Connext, lighting is not only fully integrated into your electricity management, but also into your climate and energy management. In addition to the possibility of modulating control, you also have insight into what heat is being added to the climate, as well as insight into your energy consumption.
By dimming LED light, the available amount of light is evenly distributed throughout the greenhouse. This is much more beneficial for the crop rather than turning off some of the HPS lamps and creating irregular lighting. An additional advantage of dimming LED lighting is that sunrise/sunset can be simulated. This results in less stress for the crop.
From customization to expansion module
In recent years, modular LED control was already available through special customized software on the Priva Connext. With Priva Connext software version 914 to be released in December this year, this is available as an expansion module to the lighting strategy. With this module, fixed spectrum LED and far-red light from almost all common manufacturers can be controlled.
