Marijuana Business Magazine July 2018

power level – to understand how much juice is going to each. Growers should know that the amount of lighting and HVAC being used will depend where plants are in the growth cycle. Outside conditions play a role, too, because air conditioners and dehu- midifiers must work harder on hot and/or humid days, respectively. “It’s kind of a guestimate, but it’s better than nothing,” Rivero said. To get more accurate data, Rivero sug- gests using power monitors that can be placed on breaker boxes to track electric- ity consumption based on a particular power source, such as a specific wall of air conditioning units or lighting panels. How many breaker boxes a cultivation facility has varies on the size and design of the facility as well as what kind of power ser- vice systems (single phase or three phase) and voltage power the site. Yerba Buena, for example, has individual subpanels for lighting in every room as well as a panel for each of the facility’s 10 HVAC units. There are also panels for less power-inten- sive equipment, like water pumps. Basic power monitors cost between $600 and $1,000, while the most expensive models can hit $10,000, Rivero estimated. A cultivation site doesn’t need to buy a power monitor for every breaker. But having several makes it easier to run comparisons, say between different grow rooms, different days or between lighting and HVAC units within a room. In addition, energy-management companies can install data equipment to make it easier to track and manage power consumption. 2 Get the Lowdown on LEDs While lighting uses the most electricity at indoor grow sites, most cultivators still use high-pressure sodium lights, typi- cally 1,000 watts. Not only is the wattage a major energy drain, but HPS lights produce high heat, forcing air conditioners and dehumidifiers to work harder – adding to utility bills. More efficient and environmentally friendly LED lights have been around for several years, but only a small number of growers have adopted them. Many growers acknowledge that LED lights are more efficient but argue that they don’t produce the yields that HPS lights do and, therefore, reject them. For example, Massachusetts mari- juana industry executives were up in arms in March after regulators imposed a cap on electricity use amounting to 36 watts per square foot of cultivation space.The move, in effect, forced grow- ers to adopt LED lights – a move some executives hope to overturn. When Allison Justice arrived at San Diego County, California-based OutCo in late 2016, she also was told that LED lights couldn’t perform like HPS lights, and that whatever the cost savings, they would be lost to the lower yields that were expected. Justice, OutCo’s director of cultivation, wanted to see for herself, so last year she started running trials comparing 1,000- watt HPS lights with LED lights from Fluence, a commercial LED firm whose wattages were 330, 560, 660 and 1,000. More wattage equals more light intensity. Testing on two strains, Justice and her colleagues found the LED 1,000-watt lights produced 21% higher yield than 1,000-watt HPS lights, while 660-watt LEDs resulted in 13% more yield and a 37% drop in energy use.That 37% decrease, Justice noted, didn’t account for SUSTAINABLE CULTIVATION Source: Boulder County Energy Impact Offset Fund Demand Side Management Study Total Energy Use by Facility Type Indoor Grow, Electric Heat 29.5% Indoor Grow 32.7% Greenhouse Grow 30.6% Indoor, Mixed Use 7.1% Boulder County installed eGauge electricity monitors to collect energy- use data from 12 cultivation facilities. Mixed-use sites include substantial office space, extraction operations and other processing facilities that use less energy than a typical grow. Energy Consumption by Application at Cannabis Facilities Lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning used the most energy at the 12 facilities outfitted with eGauge electricity monitors. Unknown 30.6% Lighting 42.4% HVAC 12% Electric Heat 15% 70 • Marijuana Business Magazine • July 2018