Comparisons of Different Lighting Systems for Horticultural Seedling Production Aimed at Energy Saving

Abstract

Nowadays, the evaluation of sustainability is an important aspect in the study of agricultural systems and the number of projects and methods for impact assessment of food production systems is increasing. In this work, we initially carried out a survey to know the status of the artificial lighting establishment in horticultural seedling nurseries in southern Spain. Taking into account the data obtained in the survey, we conducted an experiment with different types of fluorescent lamps (TLD-18, CF, TL5, TLD-56), light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and their combinations along with the novelty white LEDs lamps and XTRASUN LEDs to evaluate their technical parameters and spectral light qualities. In addition, the effectiveness of light irradiance (ELIplant) and the use of irradiance (UI) by cucumber and tomato seedling plants were estimated considering their light absorbance capacity previously analyzed. The results showed that TLD-18 lamps and their combinations, CF and XTRASUN LEDs, had a limited value of energy efficiency (VEEI) ≤ 2. The lamps essayed with the lowest total irradiance were LEDs (B, R, V, W) and the ones with the highest values were TLD58-6 lamps. The effectiveness of light irradiance (ELIplant) and the UI were slightly higher in the case of cucumber than that of the tomato for all essayed lamps. Considering the effectiveness of the light irradiance (ELIplant), TL5-6 lamps showed the highest values. On the other hand, considering the use of irradiance, XTRASUN LEDs on the mode of vegetative growth (VG) showed the highest values.