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Major German Tomato and Pepper Producer Continues to Reorder Food Autonomy Toplights

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GERMANY

FLEXI-GROW TOPLIGHT

16 500 FIXTURES

2023

The customer

Vitarom Neurath GbR is one of Germany’s leading tomato and pepper producers. In 2010, four German entrepreneurs teamed up to establish Vitarom Neurath GbR in Grevenbroich, Germany. Vitarom Neurath produces different tomato varieties and mini cucumbers, but within the Vitarom group, they also produce peppers and chilis. Having recognized the vital importance of adequate lighting, Vitarom was the first company in Germany to install hybrid lighting in 2015. This has enabled them to supply customers with produce all year round.

The expectations

Vitarom is battling the same challenges as greenhouse and vertical farm operators everywhere else in Europe: skyrocketing energy prices. One of Vitarom’s key ambitions is to supply fresh, local produce to German customers year around. In order to ensure continuous supply and keep their energy costs under control, Vitarom needed to install energy-efficient LED lamps that they can control remotely. Besides the maximized energy savings and the wireless control, Vitarom wanted to maintain light uniformity and create better working light for the employees.

The solution

Building on the success of the first phase of the project, Vitarom purchased more than 3,300 double toplights from Food Autonomy in the second phase of the project. The fixtures equipped with wireless dimming were installed in 2021.

As a show of Vitarom’s satisfaction with the products and services of Food Autonomy, the company embarked on a third phase of the project involving the installation of more than 6,000 multi-channel double toplights with wireless dimming. “The dimming feature of the multichannel lamp helps us trim our energy bill as we can dim the white light, which is the most energy consuming,” said Jana Knodt, management assistant at Vitarom

“Food Autonomy Lighting gave us the flexibility we’ve always wanted! With dimmable multi-channel LEDs, we can change the spectrum to the needs of our plants and workers anytime, maximize energy savings while maintaining light uniformity!” - Carsten Knodt, Managing Partner at Vitarom Neurath GbR.

The result

Vitarom could not be happier with the result; dimming provides higher savings due to increased efficiency. When the lamp is dimmed to 50%, its efficiency goes up from 3.4 to 3.8, which is a significant improvement versus the conventional method of switching off 50% of the lamps in checkerboard layout. Additionally, it allows users to maintain light uniformity, which is not the case when half-light is operated in checkerboard layout. The solution also allows for an unlimited number of groups to be set up, which can be independently controlled while new lighting installations can be added to the existing control network.

The switchable toplights, that were installed in the third phase, are not only benefiting the plants and the energy bills but they are providing much better working conditions for the employees as well. “When harvesting in the morning, the pink light not only irritates the eyes, but also makes red tomatoes look yellow. The human eye needs the white light, and our plan is to turn on the white light only for the time until it gets light outside, enabling us to customize our use of light in a more efficient manner,” explained Jana Knodt.