Class project - What are your greatest challenges growing cannabis?

[Margot123]

I am creating a business model in a class at my university to help growers increase the energy efficiency and reduce costs of indoor cannabis production.

In order to do this, my team needs to know what the energy/cost-related challenges are for growers!

1) What are cannabis growers' greatest challenges?

2a) What services, if any, do you already use to help you manage your energy use & keep costs low?

2b) How expensive are those services?

3) How do you prefer to receive your information?

4) What are the most important parameters that need to be monitored regarding growing?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Cheers]

If your talking about "energy efficiency," LEDs help tons in terms of overall power usage. Other than that not much else.

 

[LilyDanktree]

In determining efficiency time scale is super important and so is scale of operation.

For example if you are interested in a longer term investment that is best quality spectrum, highest energy efficiency and longest service life than best quality LED tech is the winner, especially in a smaller scale op.Up front costs will be higher in most cases

Basic physics shows that solid state lighting is by far the most efficient in delivering 400-700 nm photons to the canopy. Basic biology shows that the most photons delivered in a broad spectrum most efficiently will generate the best growth.

When energy costs are low, budget is limited and goals are short term, and heat is not much of an issue than HID lamps might win out.

Your model would need a few parameters to work within before you could advance best practices. Scale of operation, energy costs, environmental conditions etc would be critical factors in modeling.