Greenhouse lamp: overview, types, description, features and reviews. Greenhouse lighting with LED and sodium lamps

Today, many Russians with household plots or summer cottages are thinking about building greenhouses. This solution allows you to diversify the diet - it is nice to see fresh vegetables and herbs on your table throughout the year, as well as significantly support the family budget in our difficult time.

So, suppose your greenhouse is ready: the foundation is built, the frame is built, there is glazing (cellular polycarbonate or film), the soil is filled up, beds are created. Well thought out issues of watering and heating. It would seem that everything has been taken into account. However, this is not quite true. Have you thought about lighting? And is it needed? Indeed, during the daytime there is enough natural light, and at night the plants need to rest. Why plants need additional lighting and what it should be, what kind of lamps for heating the greenhouse today exist, we will try to tell in this article.

For normal development and intensive growth, plants require a large amount of energy. They get it from light rays: this is the sun in nature, and with greenhouse cultivation - special lamps.

What should be the light in the greenhouse?

Undoubtedly, solar lighting is most useful for agricultural crops, therefore it is necessary to use it as much as possible. However, the duration of daylight hours (autumn, winter and spring) does not allow growing crops fully - because plants need solar energy of at least ten to twelve hours a day. In any season (except summer), you will need to use lamps to illuminate greenhouses.

To create comfortable conditions for crop growth, you must follow simple rules.

1. Artificial lighting of a greenhouse with LED lamps (as, by the way, with any others) should not completely replace sunlight. It should only serve to prolong daylight hours. Therefore, the lamp for the greenhouse should be mounted in such a way that it does not limit the penetration of sunlight.
2. In a greenhouse, lighting can be intense up to 16 hours a day (this depends on the crop grown).
3. Plant lighting should not be throughout the day: instead of growing crops, you will get the opposite result - weakening and depletion of sprouts.
4. Plants need rest and darkness for 6 hours a day.

What kind of light do plants need?

All crops can be divided according to the principle of photoperiodicity. This means that each culture requires a special daylight for the formation of fruits. According to this principle, plants can be divided into:

• short-day cultures - they need less than twelve hours (light) per day;
• long day - plants need more than twelve light hours.

How to choose a lamp?

Typically, crops grown to produce flowers and fruits require more light than those grown for leaves and stems. This must be taken into account when deciding which lamp for the greenhouse you need. Today, the trading network presents a huge selection of lighting devices for greenhouses. They differ in energy saving, the spectrum of the emitted light, cost and some other parameters.

What to look for when choosing lamps?

First of all, you should ask the manufacturer of the lamp. Well-known brands guarantee quality, after-sales service (which is sometimes expensive). Chinese lamps are mainly attractive due to their low price, but, unfortunately, you will not receive any guarantees or service.

Lamp power (W)

This indicator indicates how much energy a lamp for a greenhouse spends per hour of operation.

Radiated energy

Knowing this parameter, you can calculate how many lamps are needed for sufficient lighting of the greenhouse.

Light spectrum

It should be recognized that to date, a lamp for the greenhouse has not yet been created, which is capable of 100% transmit the spectrum of the rays of the Sun. Therefore, experienced owners often combine lamps to achieve the best result. Biologists have been able to establish that different light spectra affect crops in different ways.

For example, violet and blue rays accelerate photosynthesis - the plant strengthens and grows faster. Yellow and green rays slightly inhibit photosynthesis. In this case, the stems of the plants stretch in height and become thinner. Orange and red rays are the best energy for fruiting and flowering plants, but you must know that when they are oversupplied, the plant may even die. Resistance to cold is enhanced by ultraviolet rays, they also form vitamins in the fruits and leaves of plants.

Types of lamps for greenhouses

And now we will introduce you to the types of fixtures, and you will determine which lamp for the greenhouse you need. We hope that the information received will help you make the right choice.

Fluorescent lamps

This type of fixtures is most often used in small-sized greenhouses or greenhouses. They are universal both in cost and in application - can suit many. Perfect light quality can be achieved by combining warm white light with cold light.

Such a lamp for a greenhouse can work for about 2000 hours. Often, for a complex effect on plants, an ultraviolet lamp is additionally installed , which prevents the development of harmful bacteria on plant leaves and in the soil. But it should be recognized that for large greenhouses it is better to choose a different type of lighting, since there will be too much fluorescent.

Benefits

1. First of all - the efficiency of the device. Light emission of almost full spectrum. Therefore, they can be used at every stage of culture development - from growing seedlings to complete ripening of the crop.
2. Affordable price.
3. High brightness.
4. Such lamps do not heat up, therefore, do not violate the microclimate of the greenhouse.
5. Do not require special technical skills for installation.

disadvantages

1. The fluorescent lamp for the greenhouse is too large and can block the access of natural sunlight in the daytime.
2. It has low light output.
3. It reacts to changes in external temperature - for its normal operation, a temperature of +25 degrees is necessary. When it is lowered, the lamp may simply go out.
4. It does not withstand high humidity (no more than 70%).

Lamps are mounted above the plants in a horizontal position, fixed in a rectangular metal reinforcement. They are placed at a height of up to fifty centimeters for light-loving plants, and at a height of fifty centimeters and above - for plants that prefer not too bright lighting.

Mercury lamps

To grow plants in greenhouses and greenhouses, mercury lamps - DRLFs are produced that promote active photosynthesis of plants. Their radiation spectrum is close to red, so they are best used during ripening of fruits.

Nevertheless, you should know that there are more drawbacks to such devices than advantages. These include:

• Danger of use. By breaking such a lamp, you cannot collect mercury balls. In this case, it is necessary to change the soil and destroy all plants.
• Such a lamp cannot be discarded after the end of its useful life. There is a special disposal method for this.
• It is characterized by too intense ultraviolet radiation.

High pressure sodium lamps for greenhouses

They are classified as emitting red and orange parts of the spectrum. Experts suggest that the blue part of the spectrum of the culture will receive from natural daylight.

Benefits

• The main argument in favor of such lamps can be considered their efficiency. Such devices consume a small amount of electricity and at the same time are cheaper than analogues in terms of efficiency, for example, LED lamps. This is very important if you need to illuminate a large greenhouse.
• In addition, sodium lamps for greenhouses work up to twenty thousand hours.
• Luminous efficiency significantly exceeds indicators of fluorescent lamps.

disadvantages

• Sodium lamps for greenhouses emit a lot of heat. This can be considered both a virtue and a disadvantage of the device. On the one hand, such lamps for a greenhouse in winter are quite effective. They can become an additional source of heating. But in the spring, autumn, and, of course, in the summer, such heating can harm the plants, and the owner will have to constantly monitor the temperature in the greenhouse.
• Such lamps adversely affect the development of young plants - the red part of their spectrum causes the seedlings to stretch, the stems become thin.
• Sodium lamps can attract harmful insects.
• Inside these lights is a mixture of mercury and sodium. Therefore (like mercury lamps) they are not safe to use.
• Sodium lamps cannot be connected if the fluctuations in the mains voltage are more than 5%.

LED greenhouse lamps

More often they are called LED lamps. Despite the fact that they are quite expensive, this type of lighting is becoming increasingly popular. By making a combination of such lamps, you can achieve light with the desired spectral composition - use individual lighting for any plant variety. Greenhouse lighting with LED lamps allows you to adjust the light intensity depending on the height of the devices and their number. For example, during the growth period of plants, you can give them more light with a blue spectrum, with ripening fruits - with red and orange.

Benefits

1. Profitability of electricity consumption.
2. Work at very low voltage.
3. Long service life (up to 100 thousand hours).
4. Do not heat up - the microclimate of the greenhouse is not disturbed.
5. It excludes the possibility of plants getting burns, even in the case of the closest possible distance to them.
6. LEDs are resistant to moisture, temperature changes and mechanical damage.

disadvantages

1. There is only one drawback of such lamps - high cost.

Infrared lamps

Such a lamp for heating a greenhouse in winter is ideal. I must say that today more and more greenhouse owners prefer new infrared systems. These systems are efficient and economical, able to create conditions in the greenhouse that are as close to natural as possible.

Benefits

• Infrared lamps for the greenhouse warm the plants themselves and the soil well.
• Air temperature rises from the energy given off by the walls of the greenhouse and soil. This is the main difference between IR systems from electric and convective methods, in which air (heated) rushes up, and plants and soil remain cool.
• Such heaters, if desired, can be equipped with temperature controllers, which at some point stop the supply of heat and resume heating when the temperature drops.
• Heated air quickly. IR radiation does not pose a risk to either humans or plants.
• Do not dry the air.
• The system is virtually silent.

As you can see, today there are many lamps for greenhouses. Having familiarized themselves with their shortcomings and advantages, each owner will be able to choose a lighting source suitable for his greenhouse.

Reviews of greenhouse owners

According to people growing vegetables in greenhouses, you can use different lighting. Both fluorescent and LED lamps are suitable for this. In the first case, the low cost of fixtures attracts, in the second - the rapid growth of plants. However, most owners of greenhouses prefer LEDs, despite their high cost. They fully justify their price with low power consumption and a long service life.

Many refuse mercury lamps due to the fact that, having crashed, such a lamp can cause many problems. If additional heating is needed, experienced vegetable growers recommend using infrared lights.