SX seed results

[David Pilling]

the order of 6-700W of highly focused LEDs around 15cm above each square metre. (This is around the figure used for "vertical farming")

That's a sobering figure - I've seen many TV programs about the subject, but no one ever says what the energy use is.

[CG100]

That's a sobering figure - I've seen many TV programs about the subject, but no one ever says what the energy use is.

Yes, pretty horrendous really.
Whether the figure is that high for producing micro-veg' which seem to be oh so popular at the moment  (and the biggest waste of resources yet invented), I don't know, but it will be online somewhere.

There is plenty of information online published by Philips, plus companies supplying complete growing systems - such as Lumatek in the UK.

People get confused by the efficiency/efficacy of LEDs being so much higher than incandescent lamps - they are, but incandescent lamps are something like 0.05% efficient in turning electrical power into light.
Real-life LEDs are also around the same efficacy as HPS/SON/Lucalox, whatever you choose to call the lamps, but have the advantage over SON of producing almost any spectrum that might be required to manipulate plant growth.
(Both types of lamp require running gear which uses energy, in the case of LEDs that is around 10% of the total energy used on large installations, for small domestic-use LED lamps, the % is far higher.)

I have written an article about light/lighting etc. for the next SABG newsletter if curious/interested, which can be downloaded free from the website once it is published.