Vertically Urban launch Horti-Blade™ HE, an opex-busting version of their popular led grow light

Vertically Urban’s ever-popular Horti-Blade™ family of luminaires is set to welcome a new member to the fold, designed to reduce the operating costs of vertical farm lighting.

Known as Horti-Blade™ HE, the new model represents a leap forward in output and energy efficiency. This innovation consumes up to 26% less energy to achieve a given PPFD when compared to a standard installation. Currently only available in limited proprietary spectra but with efficacies up to 3.8 μmol/J, the team are working hard to bring the energy-saving potential to other spectra soon.

Andrew Littler, Vertically Urban’s CEO, said: “Whilst all our Horti-Blade™ models have been developed with energy efficiency in mind, the new ‘HE’ model takes this focus to a new level. As a result, we can now slash lighting OPEX for our growers by up to 26% through changing the luminaire alone.” He added, “Furthermore, when Horti-Blade™ HE is deployed alongside the latest plant science findings and an intelligent AI-based farm control system, such as our upcoming HORISS platform, additional savings in overall OPEX are a real possibility.”

Like the rest of the family, Horti-Blade™ HE is an ultra-slim, advanced LED grow light, designed for vertical and indoor farming applications. Manufactured in the UK by Vertically Urban’s dedicated team, each member of the Horti-Blade™ family is just 8mm thin and combines the latest in LED technology with custom optics to ensure the maximum number of useable photons reach the crop.

With the addition of the OPEX-busting Horti-Blade™ HE, there are now four distinct models in the family.

Horti-Blade™ S features output optimised for lower mounting heights and is particularly suited to less intensive growing conditions, such as microgreen cultivation or seedling propagation.

Optimised for overall light output and uniformity, Horti-Blade™ H features PPF levels up to 30% higher than our S model and is most suitable for situations where maximised yield and crop uniformity are paramount.

The final member of the family, Horti-Blade™ Tunable, is ideal for research applications, or where a wide variety of crops are to be grown. Four individually controlled and fully dimmable channels, allow precise tuning of each section of the output spectrum to the needs of the crop.

“With OPEX being such a huge topic at the moment, we’re truly excited to add Horti-Blade™ HE to the family and in turn offer our growers the chance to save big on their energy bill,” said Jon Potter, Vertically Urban’s Business Development Director. He continued, “we’d love to show you the potential of Horti-Blade™ HE, so get in touch and we can begin your journey with us!”