GROW LIGHTING
Understanding IP Ratings for Commercial Cultivators
When you’re a grower, your workplace is always challenging – regardless of the size of your facility. All the moving parts of a commercial cultivation come together to create the unique controlled environment you’ve curated for your plants. You have to manage moisture, dirt and dust, liquids, temperatures… the list goes on. When equipment fails, it can cause a domino effect across your entire facility, ultimately impacting your bottom line.
One way to mitigate this risk is to use lighting fixtures that are rated specifically for your type of growing environment. That’s why knowing the IP Rating of your fixture is crucial – IP Ratings tell you about the reliability and longevity of your lighting. Knowing the facts about IP Ratings will help you have a higher ROI for your cultivation operation.
What does IP Rating for LED mean?
An IP Rating is short for “Ingress Protection Rating.” IP ratings are defined by the international electronics standard EN 60529.
The IP rating classifies the degree of protection provided by an enclosure for electrical equipment with a rated voltage not exceeding 72.5 kV (that’s 72,500 volts in simple terms).
This standard defines levels of “sealing effectiveness” against the ingress or intrusion from foreign bodies such as tools, dirt, and liquids or water.
The rating consists of the letters IP followed by two digits (for example, IP66): the higher the number the better the protections are for the device in each category – liquids and solids. If the digit is replaced by X, this indicates that the fixture’s enclosure is not rated for that type of ingress protection. Let’s look closer at what each of the two numbers mean:
IP66 – This big 6 tells us about Solids…
The first digit indicates the level of protection that the enclosure provides against solid foreign objects. This includes contact with tools that could be hazardous if they came into contact with moving parts, or dirt and dust that could damage and contaminate your grow light. If you’re growing plants, you already know dirt and dust are part of the game – so a high number in that first digit is crucial.
IP66 = This big 6 tells us about Liquids…
The second digit tells us about the lighting fixture enclosure’s protections against liquid and moisture. As a grower, you know the potential hazards of getting your lights wet from all kinds of sources: drips, sprays, water jets, accidental submersion, cleaning, and more. Since these instances are prominent in commercial cultivation facilities of all sizes, it’s important to make sure your lights won’t need to be replaced every time they come into contact with liquids.
Reference Chart
Number | Intrusion Protection | Moisture Protection |
0 | No protection from contact with or ingress of solids. | No protection against ingress of water. |
1 | Protected against any large surface of the body greater than 50mm (such as the back of the hand), but no protection against deliberate contact with a body part. | Protection against vertically dripping water when mounted upright. |
2 | Protected against solid objects over 12mm, such as fingers or similarly sized objects (greater than 12.5mm). | Protected against vertically dripping water (such as condensation) when the enclosure is tilted at a 15º angle from its normal position. |
3 | Protected against solid objects over 2.5mm (such as tools or thick wires). | Protected against water spraying at any angle up to 60º from the vertical. |
4 | Protected against solid objects over 1mm (such as slender screws, large ants, and most wires). | Protected against splashing water from all directions, limited ingress permitted. |
5 | Limited protection against dust, but not enough to interfere with satisfactory operation of equipment (dust-protected). | Protected against water jets (6.3mm nozzles) from all directions at 12 Litres/min |
6 | Complete protection against dust (dust-tight). | Protected against strong jets of water (12.5mm nozzles) from all directions at 100 Litres/min |
BIOS knows that growers need fixtures that stand up to the rigors of a cultivation. While other companies settle for lower IP standards, we have designed and engineered our Icarus LED Grow Lights with IP66 ratings for optimal performance in extreme growing environments. We believe that your investment in lighting should be protected to ensure they provide top notch performance.
If you are tired of fixture failures and need industrial grade grow lights that consistently drive quality and production, contact us by filling out the form below.
Learn more about the BIOS Icarus Line of LED Grow Lights for Commercial Cultivators: www.bioslighting.com/plant