Agrilights

[Darkness]

A neighbour of mine has put up a new cattle shed 200ft by 100ft I think it is and several agents want him to fit Agrilights (AL2007 400watt HPS fixture) as they are the most energy efficient lights on the market. Each light is around £400 so some have said.

It will cost thousands for the lights alone but they say the lights will pay for themselves.

Have any of you sparks fitted these type of lights and can provide some feedback to whether the price is justified? They supposingly have a dimmer fitted so during the night they dim hence were the energy bit comes in.

I don't understand how they say a light costing £400 or so is worth every penny and your normal Metal Halide lights wouldn't put a patch on these.

Cheers

 

[securespark]

Dimmable model only for poultry.

Only need one row in buildings up to 24m wide.

 

[Darkness]

So where does the energy saving come into play then with these lights?

 

[securespark]

Just looked it up, my mistake: as well as a dimmable model for poultry, there are dimmable models of the AL 2007.

http://www.agrilight.nl/en/al2007/

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So where does the energy saving come into play then with these lights?

From the fact that HPS is very efficient?

Has he looked at LEDs? (likely to be hugely expensive - long ROI)

Induction?

 

[Darkness]

He had planned to install twin 58/70w weatherproof HF fluorescents which still provide excellent light and are easy on juice.

These agents want him to dump the fluorescents for these 400w agrilights. In terms of running costs and purchase costs, the fluorescents seem the better option?

Dual fluorescent costs £45 and is around 116w were the agrilight is around £400 at 400w.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Who are these "agents"?

Do they work for lighting suppliers?

 

[Darkness]

I am told these agents are the authorised dealers of agrilights. It appears you have to go through one of these people to get the lights so that rules out buying them through the internet for a tad cheaper.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So they are salesmen - that's why they want him to buy them.

 

[RF Lighting]

I've not long since done a large cattle barn. It was ~200m long by ~70m wide with a ridge height of 6m

We lit it with 4 rows of 6no. 250W SON lowbay fittings. Each row is wired alternately so every other light or all the lights can be switched on.

SON produces around 20% more light per watt than fluorescent so you will need more fittings which means more wiring and higher installation costs too.

Also fluorescents perform badly when cold, and their light output tails off and ultimately fails much quicker than SON lamps do.

You can pick up low bay fittings for about £60 each


You should not use metal halide lighting in cattle sheds as the beasts don't like it.