"Royal Pride chooses for new SON-T lamp from Aruna"

As of this month, Dutch greenhouse company Royal Pride will be replacing 9000 lamps at their operations in Middenmeer with Aruna Lighting’s new 1000 watt sodium (SON-T) lamps. Tomato grower Frank van Kleef: "This new development in the field of traditional lighting offers new opportunities. We started testing these lamps three years ago and their quality and longevity have now, in our opinion, amply been proven. The lamps perform better than we are accustomed and are also significantly cheaper."

The entrepreneurs behind Aruna Lighting, Jeroen van Velzen and Tim Cremer began the journey towards the new lamp three years ago. Van Velzen: "This development fits perfectly in the current time in which new players like Uber and Airbnb are constantly pushing existing boundaries."

Through smart collaboration in the chain and innovation with experts with many years of experience in the development and production of sodium lamps, Aruna Lighting has developed a sodium lamp that claims not only to perform better but that is also a lot cheaper. Van Velzen: "Our newly developed Aruna Active Antenne Technology guarantees the ignition of the lamp over an extended lifetime, while the PAR output remains high."

Both entrepreneurs are not new in horticulture. "Tim and I introduced LED lighting in horticulture back in 2007," according to Van Velzen. "LEDs offer unprecedented opportunities for horticulture, but there is still much to learn. In those years we also learned that the traditional high-pressure sodium lights will always remain an important part of lit cultivation."

Van Velzen is referring to the heat radiation from sodium lamps that ensure a favorable climate in the greenhouse. Van Kleef adds: "The use of hybrid lighting LED and SON-T will undoubtedly rise in horticulture, but currently we have 46,000 SON-T lamps that have to be replaced every now and then, so we are very happy with this higher quality, more economical lamp from Aruna.”

Source: hortidaily.com