Grönfingers Gartenfachmarkt, Rostock

Project description
New light in the greenhouse – flexible and efficient Grönfingers garden center in Rostock Lots of plants, lots of space, lots of daylight: garden centres place unique demands on lighting. The successful lighting retrofit at Grönfingers, the leading garden centre in the Rostock region, demonstrates how well a solution using the RIDI LINIA trunking system in combination with the APCON EASY BLE lighting control can meet these needs.From a cooperative nursery just outside Rostock, founder Rudolf Heinemann built a garden centre with its own production facility after German reunification. Today, the family-run company under the “Grönfingers” brand is considered one of the most versatile, modern, and sustainable players in the industry – even by European standards. The company boasts some 12,800 m² of sales space, with nearly the same amount again dedicated to in-house cultivation, administration, storage, and auxiliary buildings. Typical of garden centre is the greenhouse architecture made of steel and glass. The first 6,000 m² construction phase, completed last year, shows how such spaces can be illuminated in a modern, appealing, and efficient way. Grönfingers chose RIDI as their project partner – not least because of the manufacturer’s expertise in both lighting and control solutions. High potential for energy savings Natural daylight plays the main role at Grönfingers. “It offers the plants ideal conditions,” says Piet Heinemann, grandson of the founder, who works as Head of Internal Services and led the retrofit project. Thanks to the glass roofs, daylight is abundantly available – and doesn’t cost a cent. The task of artificial lighting is to supplement the natural light when the garden centre’s opening hours in winter extend into dusk or nighttime. Additionally, partly or fully covered roof areas create zones that require additional lighting during the day. “We were satisfied with the old lighting system for over 20 years,” explains Heinemann, “but replacement parts for the pendant fixtures and discharge lamps were becoming increasingly scarce” – in other words, the system had reached the end of its lifecycle. At just the right time, the local RIDI sales expert presented a compelling offer: a completely redesigned smart lighting solution based on RIDI LINIA LED trunking, promising higher light quality and flexibility as well as major energy savings. Trunking system solution For the Heinemann family, integrating lighting control was a matter of course: “Greenhouse growers have used regulated building technology for years to manage heating, ventilation, and shading.” With the switch to LED technology – which unlike the previous system allows continuous dimming from 0 to 100% – integrating a control solution was the logical next step, especially with a system as cost-effective as the combination of RIDI LINIA and APCON control. To achieve a similarly uniform light distribution with LED trunking as previously with individual fixtures, RIDI and Grönfingers developed a layout following the steel structure of the greenhouse roofs: continuous trunking along the eaves lines and shorter trunking segments with three LED modules each, arranged perpendicularly across the sales floor. Existing power connections could be reused in this layout. Thanks to silver coloured trunking rails and modules, the new lighting visually integrates with the galvanized steel roof structure. LED modules with a luminous flux of 8,100 lm at the eaves achieve illuminance levels of approx. 800 lx. Presentation areas for plants, garden furniture, tools, and accessories are equipped with modules delivering 14,050 lm, reaching illuminance levels between 1,000 and 1,500 lx. Symmetrical wide-beam LED optics are used. The warm white light colour (830 / 3000K) creates a pleasant and natural atmosphere during early and late opening hours when artificial lighting dominates. Improved colour rendering compared to the old discharge lamps enhances the effect. Smart: Hybrid control system For applications like Grönfingers, RIDI offers the APCON EASY BLE control system, specially developed for LINIA installations. Its great advantage: it combines wireless Bluetooth/Casambi-based control with reliable wired DALI communication wherever existing lines are already present – specifically in the 11-pole LINIA trunking system. RIDI VLMF hybrid boxes act as interfaces between wireless and DALI and are simply inserted into the trunking rails. The result is maximum flexibility in planning and configuration. At Grönfingers, the cross-arranged trunking lines with three modules each are grouped into synchronously controlled units with a shared Casambi address. Within each trunking line, the modules receive DALI broadcast commands, which simplifies maintenance: if a module is damaged, it can be replaced without any need for reconfiguration or reprogramming. The planners used a total of 39 VLMF hybrid boxes to control 529 LINIA modules. Tailored and adaptable To seamlessly coordinate artificial and natural light, eight sensor units are installed above the sales area in key locations. The combined APCON BLE sensors for luminance and motion are powered via the LINIA trunking profile but communicate wirelessly via Bluetooth with the control network. The flexibility of APCON becomes evident on the promotional area, where the layout frequently changes and lighting must adapt accordingly. Here, a special APCON Hybridbox 32 allows for individual, rather than broadcast, DALI control – each module has its own Casambi address. The APCON app makes it easy to flexibly and reversibly group trunking lines or individual modules as needed. This concept enables operators to tailor their lighting and control system to fit their specific needs and continuously adapt it over time. Piet Heinemann, himself a trained engineer, takes full advantage of this flexibility. “I used a floor plan of the halls as the background in the APCON app,” he says, offering an example of how system and interface were customized: “That makes the system intuitive and easy for colleagues to operate as well.” The system is also equipped with an internet gateway for remote control and monitoring. Alternatively, to the app's built-in scheduling function, a Casambi push-button interface connects the lighting to an existing building control signal to activate the system during opening hours. A cost-effective solution Piet Heinemann felt well supported by the RIDI team throughout the process – from planning and logistics to APCON training at the RIDI site in Zeuthen near Berlin. The lighting quality in the renovated area is excellent, customers feel comfortable, and the expected energy savings have been achieved. “Direct energy savings are difficult to quantify due to our highly individual load profile and other fluctuations in consumption. But the fixed electricity supply costs are now significantly lower thanks to a noticeably reduced peak load,” explains Heinemann. The hybrid control solution offers great flexibility during operation and for future modifications or expansions. With the control technology accounting for just 6% of the total lighting system cost, it is also extremely cost-effective – a factor that matters to Heinemann, since commercial thinking is just as crucial to the long-term success of Grönfingers as their ‘green thumb’. 

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