Sustainability
Lighting a pitch costs energy. The question is how much, and against what.
A grow rig is not a low-impact object. It draws between 2.3 and 13 kW and it runs for hours at a time. What it can be is substantially less wasteful than the equipment it replaces, and the mechanism for that is measurable rather than rhetorical.
less electricity than a high-pressure sodium rig delivering the same light to the same area.
Measured on the EnovaLight 24 at 450 µmol/m²/s across 650 sq ft. The lower figure is against current double-ended sodium, the upper against the older mogul-base fixtures still in service. Full working below.Our position
We would rather publish the method than the headline.
Most energy claims in this market are a single percentage with no baseline attached. The number is meaningless without knowing which fixture it was measured against, because the range between an older sodium rig and a current one is wider than the range between sodium and LED.
So the figures below state what they are compared with, at what light level, over what run time. The saving on your pitch depends on the rig you are replacing, and we would rather work that out with you than average it away.
Where the saving comes from
One number decides it: photons delivered per joule consumed.
Photon efficacy, measured in µmol/J, is how much usable light a fixture produces for each unit of electricity. Two rigs delivering the same light to the same area at different efficacies differ in draw by exactly that ratio. Everything else is secondary.
| Light source | Photon efficacy | Draw to deliver 27,000 µmol/s |
|---|---|---|
| Older mogul-base HPS, still in service | about 1.0 µmol/J | around 26.6 kW |
| Modern double-ended HPS | 2.0 to 2.1 µmol/J | around 12.9 kW |
| EnovaLight 24 | 3.5 µmol/J deliveredlight reaching the treated area, not fixture output | 7.8 kW |
HPS figures are fixture efficacy from published horticultural lighting measurements. The EnovaLight figure is calculated from rated light level across rated coverage, which is a stricter basis, since it counts only the light that lands on the treatment area.
A worked season
One EnovaLight 24, eight hours a day, one hundred days.
The same treatment, the same light level, the same area, costed against two generations of sodium rig at the US average grid emissions factor.
EnovaLight 24
- Draw7.8 kW
- Season energy6,240 kWh
Against modern DE HPS
- Their season energy10,350 kWh
- Saved4,110 kWh40 percent
- Avoided1.5 t CO&sub2;e
Against older mogul-base HPS
- Their season energy21,310 kWh
- Saved15,070 kWh71 percent
- Avoided5.6 t CO&sub2;e
Emissions converted at 0.37 kg CO&sub2;e per kWh, the US national average output rate. Venues on a cleaner regional grid will see a smaller carbon figure for the same kilowatt-hours, and venues on a coal-weighted grid a larger one.
Beyond electricity
Four things that do not appear on the meter.
No mercury
High-pressure sodium lamps contain mercury, which governs how they are handled at end of life and how they are transported. LED fixtures contain none, so a failed fixture is not hazardous waste.
Fewer fixtures manufactured
LED fixtures in this class are rated near 50,000 hours against roughly 16,000 for sodium lamps. Over the life of a rig that is around a third of the fixtures built, shipped and disposed of.
No radiant heat on the canopy
Sodium lamps put significant infrared onto the surface below them. LEDs do not, so a rig can hold position for a full treatment without scorching, and without the irrigation needed to offset it.
Sod that does not need replacing
Re-sodding is the heaviest thing a pitch does. Houston moved roughly 81,000 square feet of grass from Colorado in 25 refrigerated trucks for a single tournament. Every re-sod avoided is that freight avoided.
What we do not claim
We do not claim a rig is carbon neutral, and we do not offset. A treatment cycle uses grid electricity and the emissions are real. We also do not claim a fixed percentage saving, because the honest answer ranges from about 40 percent to about 70 percent depending entirely on what is being replaced. Where a pitch can hold density on daylight alone, the lowest-impact rig is the one that stays in storage.
Your numbers
We will run this for your venue.
Send the fixtures you run now, their rated output and your typical treatment hours. We will put your current consumption next to an EnovaLight configuration delivering the same light, and give you the working.
Sources
- Nelson and Bugbee. Economic analysis of greenhouse lighting: LED versus high intensity discharge fixtures. PLOS ONE, 2014.
- P.L. Light Systems, published photon efficacy figures for double-ended HPS and LED luminaires.
- US EPA eGRID national average output emission rate, 823 lb CO&sub2;e per MWh.
- FIFA World Cup 2026 venue conversion reporting, June 2026.