How to control grow lighting electronics?
Indoor grower can harvest crops in the comfort of home throughout the year thanks to a controlled growing space, which is provided by a quality grow tent. However, without ensuring optimal conditions for cultivated plants using various electrical devices, the cultivation of herbs, fruit or vegetables would not make much sense. That is why you should read how to switch growing electronics on and off regularly. Automating these growing processes ultimately always saves both your time and your money.
Let us begin with an overview of the basic growing electronics that can be included in the automation of growing processes. These are mainly the following devices:
- Lighting
- Fans
- Heating
- Pumps
- Humidifiers and dehumidifiers
- Carbon dioxide generators
- Temperature, humidity and CO2 sensors
The above-mentioned growing electronics and other devices are used by indoor growers according to their needs and experience to easily achieve in the growing space the maintenance of the correct temperature, humidity, CO2 level, pH and EC. It is probably not difficult to guess that keeping all these values constantly under control would be almost unthinkable, and at the very least very difficult, without automation and regulation of key electrical devices when growing indoors, and not at all fun either. The correct values in the areas mentioned create an ideal environment for plant development together. This means that the following will improve significantly:
- photosynthesis
- water loss through the surface of plant leaves (transpiration)
- nutrient uptake
- growth, flowering and ripening, as well as other aspects important for healthy plant development.
Growers’ needs in terms of automation and regulation of growing electronics usually increase in line with ever greater experience and possibilities. At the beginning, you will need to control at least lighting so that plant cultivation is truly efficient in indoor.
- If you use classic discharge lamps for lighting in a grow tent or room, we recommend choosing distribution boxes straight away, which we will focus on in the next part of this article.
- For fluorescent tubes, CMH lamps, or LED lights, reliable timers will also serve well as a basic solution. They are also capable of ensuring regular irrigation in watering systems by switching the pump on and off. At the beginning or for hobby purposes, mechanical timers are often sufficient; they allow you to switch any electrical device on or off at the required time and are easy to set. The simple but reliable TBox Timer Box 1M best meets these parameters. In addition, the Spanish brand Tempobox also manufactures top-quality distribution boards, which we will cover a little further below. It is definitely worth reading the complete range in the separate article TBOX: a new product that pays off!
- A different league of switching - that is how we can, without exaggeration, call the second and interval timers from the renowned Dutch manufacturer TechGrow, which already allow easy and at the same time very precise setting of intervals for controlling a given electrical device, thanks to an extra-heavy relay with a capacity of up to 10 A. The technically advanced TechGrow time switches are equipped with a built-in light sensor, which makes growing herbs in a grow box considerably easier, because it gives you the choice of whether you want to use the timer only during the day or also at night.