The customer
Bylinky, which is part of the Spisa Group, is a Czech greenhouse grower and the market leader of potted herbs within the country. They have been growing fresh herbs for people’s homes in their progressive greenhouse since 2012 and currently they are the only year-round producer of potted Czech herbs and supplier of cut herbs for both household cooking, as well as professional establishments. Bylinky respects planet Earth: to irrigate herbs, the company uses exclusively filtered rainwater collected in a reservoir of 2500 m3. They prefer not to use chemicals, so they fight off pests with the help of natural enemies or bioagents and the next step was switching to LED lights.
The expectations
The Czech greenhouse grower was looking for a solution that replaces their traditional HPS luminaires with more efficient and controllable LEDs so they would save on energy. Besides the financial benefits, they also wished to improve the quality and the shelf life of the herbs.
The solution
The selected luminaire, called Flexi-Grow Greenhouse Toplight, has been designed by Food Autonomy as a replacement for the previously used 600W High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps. In the fixed full spectrum toplight module, a step dim feature was included as well, which helps Bylinky to save considerably on energy costs. To put it simply, once there is enough sunlight, they can just dim it down.
Since we are using the Food Autonomy toplights, our energy consumption has been significantly reduced and our herbs have never been healthier! We are extremely satisfied with the service we receive from Food Autonomy, so we decided to place a second order with them, boosting our installation with an additional 1 hectare in 2023. -concludes Václav Bajko, Technical Manager at Bylinky
The result
From a financial perspective, the LED solution developed by Food Autonomy is providing Bylinky with the same light level they had under HPS, while saving at least 40% on energy consumption.
But saving energy is not the only advantage that comes with the new fixtures. From an agricultural point of view, the herbs are compact, the new solution had a positive effect on the shelf-life spam of the herbs too.
