Vendor Teardown 03 — Lighting

Source: 03_lighting.jpeg + 07_pricing_offer.pdf

Read (equipment spec)

Pricing offer breakdown

Pricing red flags

1. €399 per "800 W" top fixture is below the genuine Samsung LM301H cost floor (~€450–600 for an equivalent real-chip fixture even in bulk from Kingbrite). This is a Chinese budget board — almost certainly Epistar, LM281B+, Sanan, or a relabeled LM281B+ advertised as "LM301B equivalent". Efficacy is probably 2.0–2.4 µmol/J, not the ~2.7 of a genuine LM301H build.

2. No brand, no chip, no efficacy, no warranty, no DLC listing is in the offer. At 24 fixtures × €399 = €9 576, that's the customer's single biggest lighting line item going to an unnamed product with no paper trail.

3. "1200 PPFD on the canopy" is plausible — 593 W/m² × ~2 µmol/J ≈ 1186 µmol/m²/s. So the Chinese budget board math checks out, but the vendor is selling 2.0 µmol/J lighting at a price point where better chips exist. For the same ~€400 per fixture you can get a Kingbrite LM301H EVO board direct from AliExpress — see diy_proposal/01_lighting_led_diy.md.

4. Intercanopy confirmed dimmable — the equipment spec didn't say. This is useful: dimming lets you ramp intercanopy down during the stretch phase to avoid burning mid-canopy flowers, then up in mid-late flower.

5. €90 per 120 W intercanopy bar is cheap — market rate for commercial IP65-rated intercanopy is €100–180. At €90 these are likely either (a) not IP65 (condensation failure risk in a 60 % RH flowering room) or (b) the same no-name Chinese bars as the top lights.

UVC lamps — not in equipment spec

14 × UVC sterilization lamps at €100 = €1 400. UVC at 254 nm is used for:

• Air sterilization in ducted return paths (kills spore suspensions, powdery mildew, botrytis)
• Surface sterilization of the room between cycles (never with plants present — UVC destroys DNA)

14 lamps across the facility suggests 4 per flowering room + 2 per veg + 2 mothers + 2 dry. Placement and interlocks are unspecified:

• Is there a safety interlock disabling UVC when room doors are open? Human UVC exposure causes corneal burns within 30 seconds of direct exposure.
• Are they on timers, manual, or controlled by Growlink?
• Are they 254 nm (germicidal) or 222 nm (far-UVC, eye-safe)? 222 nm is 5× more expensive and if the vendor is charging €100 each, it's almost certainly 254 nm.

€100 per UVC lamp is mid-range commercial; real Philips TUV 36 W lamps + ballast are ~€80–120. Plausible pricing.

Electrical

Electrical

Per flowering room:

• Top: 12 × 800 W = 9 600 W
• Intercanopy: 18 × 120 W = 2 160 W
• Subtotal: 11 760 W ≈ 11.8 kW

Facility total lighting:

• 2 × 11 760 = 23 520 W (flowering)
• 24 × 50 = 1 200 W (veg)
• 12 × 30 = 360 W (cloning)
• Total: ~25.1 kW

Intensity check — over 16.2 m² flowering canopy

This is aggressive high-intensity photosynthesis territory — comparable to what commercial HPS rooms used to deliver before LEDs, and at the upper limit of what LED gardens run in 2026.

Finding 1 — Intensity is only valid with CO₂ (and CO₂ tanks aren't line-itemed)

At 593 W/m² (top only) and especially 726 W/m² with intercanopy, the canopy is light-saturated above ambient CO₂ (~420 ppm). The extra photon intensity only translates into photosynthesis if CO₂ is enriched to ≥ 1000 ppm, ideally 1200–1500 ppm during the day cycle. Without enrichment:

• Photosynthesis plateaus around 800–1000 µmol/m²/s at ambient CO₂
• The extra intensity above that shows up as pure heat and plant stress
• Leaf temperatures run hot, stomata close, transpiration drops, cooling load grows
• Yields can actually decrease from over-lighting at ambient CO₂

CO₂ enrichment: the pricing offer includes "Growlink Climalink with CO2" controllers (€499 per flowering / veg / mothers / dry room) — so the vendor implicitly plans CO₂ dosing. But the actual CO₂ tanks, regulators, solenoids, and distribution lines are not line-itemed anywhere in the €82 584 total. The customer will get delivery of a control module that is programmed to dose CO₂, connected to nothing. The hardware gap here is ~€1 500–2 500 for tanks + regulators + solenoids + tubing for two flowering rooms.

Finding 2 — No chip / fixture brand given (confirmed by €399 price point)

The vendor spec says "800 W top light" and "120 W intercanopy" — but:

• No brand (Fluence? Gavita? Mars Hydro? Spider Farmer? No-name Chinese?)
• No chip (LM301H EVO? LM301B? Bridgelux? Epistar clone?)
• No efficacy rating (µmol/J)
• No spectrum (3000 K? 3500 K? 660 nm red percentage?)
• No PPF (µmol/s)
• No DLC listing status (commercial rebate + insurance)
• No warranty term
• No IP rating

At €399 per 800 W fixture the vendor's line-item total is €9 576 for 24 top lights — in the same €/unit range as a budget Kingbrite or CrxSunny AliExpress board, not Fluence / Gavita / Mars Hydro. The customer is paying ~€400 for a no-name Chinese board with no warranty chain, when the same money would buy a genuine Samsung LM301H EVO Kingbrite board from AliExpress shipped to Poland. The counter-proposal is to pay roughly the same money for named-chip fixtures with a spectrum graph and a warranty.

Finding 3 — Intercanopy in commercial is non-trivial

18 × 120 W intercanopy bars per room is an ambitious and unusual choice for a commercial grow. Most operators skip intercanopy because:

• It adds 20–25 % to lighting capex
• It adds labour during defoliation (bars are in the way)
• The yield delta is ~8–15 % — real but not massive
• Intercanopy bars in humid flowering rooms fail faster than top lights (IP66 minimum needed)

The vendor either has a genuine reason to spec it (a tall-cola strain program, a Dutch-style bushy canopy) or threw it in to inflate the line item. Ask the vendor to justify.

Finding 4 — Photoperiod and driver control not specified

• What is the photoperiod (12/12, or some stretched pattern)?
• Are drivers 0–10 V dimmable, or fixed?
• Is there sunrise/sunset ramping (protects plants from light shock, reduces compressor cycling)?
• Are drivers on a single phase or distributed across 3 phases?

For 12 × 800 W drivers plus 18 × 120 W drivers per room, you need them distributed across 3 phases or you create massive phase imbalance. Distribution isn't in the spec either.

Confirmations still needed from vendor

1. Fixture brand and model for top, intercanopy, veg, and clone.
2. Chip type and spectrum recipe.
3. Independently-verified PPF and µmol/J (not marketing).
4. DLC listing status.
5. Warranty term in months.
6. IP rating (≥IP65 required for commercial flower rooms).
7. CO₂ enrichment: included or separate line?
8. Photoperiod, dimming, ramping capabilities.
9. Phase distribution plan.