It’s not uncommon to hear indoor cannabis cultivators talk about crop output and throw out phrases such as “pounds per light” and “grams per watt.” But are those the best metrics by which to judge cultivation performance and, specifically, optimization of energy inputs?
RII believes there are better, more comprehensive measurements that reflect the actual energy consumption of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) facilities. After all, in today’s cost-competitive cannabis market, the best measures of success will account for resource conservation efforts that can be tracked and monitored over time.
Alternatives such as “grams per kWh” (for electricity analysis) and “grams per kBtu” (for scenarios where multiple sources of power are used) are much more indicative of the precise efficiency metrics needed by today’s indoor cultivators and operations teams. These metrics represent the ratio of production of dried flower in grams to whole building energy consumption, where lighting and HVAC related usage is considered. After all, HVAC optimization can be a significant driver of profit.
In addition to production-related metrics, it’s important to understand space optimization by evaluating kWh and kBtu per square foot of flowering canopy. The Cannabis PowerScore generates benchmarks using this set of performance metrics.
Thank you to our Technical Advisory Council for weighing in on measurement guidance through the drafting of our Best Practices Guides! Together we are tracking our way toward more efficient cultivation!
