Greenhouse Lighting Limits
Total Radiation is a key input used to predict crop development and, ultimately, your harvest forecast. It consists of:
Solar Radiation (see Use of Solcast in Harvest Forecast article)
Artificial Light (from greenhouse lighting systems such as LED and HPS)
Physical limits of artificial light
Source now accounts for the physical capacity of your greenhouse lighting hardware when calculating Total Radiation.
Each greenhouse has a maximum amount of artificial light it can produce per day, based on its installed LED and HPS systems.
If sunlight is low, artificial light is used to compensate — but only up to what the hardware can physically deliver.
If your target radiation exceeds this limit, Total Radiation will be capped at:
Solar Radiation + Max Daily Artificial Light
What this means for you
On dark or low-sunlight days, you may see Total Radiation values that are lower than your Minimum Radiation target.
This is expected and indicates that your current lighting setup cannot physically reach the target.
These realistic values help prevent over-optimistic growth and harvest predictions.
By respecting real lighting limits, Source ensures that downstream models use realistic energy inputs, improving the accuracy of harvest forecasts.