40 Under 40: Ben Arnet Lights The Way

Ben Arnet is co-founder and president of the Las Vegas-based LED lighting company Fohse, which he conceived in 2017 as a unique fusion of horticultural science and engineering. From the Greek word for “light” (phos, the root of photons and photosynthesis), Fohse’s special concern is minutely calibrating cannabis grow systems, and especially maximizing efficiency for lighting indoor operations and greenhouses. The company has been shaped by the special imperatives imposed in the unforgiving environment of Nevada.

Partially through personal experience, Arnet and his business partners recognized the frustrations of local cultivators with inadequate grow technology. The standard high-pressure sodium (HPS) lightbulbs can push temperatures up to 100-degree Fahrenheit in grow rooms, overwhelming HVAC systems. They saw the need for a high-power LED grow light that could reduce the cost per pound and save equipment in the Silver State’s desert facilities. Traditional HPS bulbs produce too much heat per watt consumed, whereas most LED lights lack sufficient output to effectively serve for cannabis cultivation. Fohse shook up the market by bridging this gap with brighter, more efficient light-emitting diodes.

“We’re designing and manufacturing high-powered LED lights specifically for commercial cannabis cultivation, with different spectrums for different stages of plant growth—clones, mothers, vegetative, flowering,” Arnet says. “We’re providing equipment that hasn’t been available to cannabis growers, who were forced to Frankensteinian tomato and cabbage lights.” 

In addition to its staff of 35 (not counting the hundreds employed by contractors at its Shenzhen and Cambodia manufacturing facilities), including engineering and horticultural specialists, the company collaborates with botanists and soil experts, tapping their expertise in hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic methods. 

The team sets up infrastructure for higher-powered LEDs with more photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD)—rivaling or surpassing the 2000 PFFD the sun typically producers in Las Vegas. Fohse’s flagship product is the A3i light named after a class of star in the galaxy that burns brighter than our sun, which is considered a G2V star. But the more efficient diodes don’t produce the heat pollution associated with HPS blubs.

Facilities are fitted with software-controlled systems including greenhouse self-dimming to ensure consistent PPFD year-round, which translates into consistency in yield and quality regardless of whether harvest is in June or January. 

Monitoring sensors give growers more access to data, such as photomorphogenic responses to the intensity or spectrum of the light. For instance, some growers may find that increased red spectrum turns plants purple—but this is “cultivar-dependent,” meaning the result depends on what strain is being grown. By working intimately with growers, Arnet says, Fohse can “fine-tune each room and each genetic,” overcoming the limitations of traditional methods that “leave genetic potential on table.”

Fohse is also now marketing homegrow kits with lighting, tent, fan, feeding system, drip irrigation and accompanying software to control it all. Even those growing for personal use can maintain proper environmental controls through their phone. 

LED products receive certification from the Massachusetts-based DesignLights Consortium (DLC), an independent nonprofit organization for the industry. Under a rebate program to encourage efficiency, power utilities will pay consumers 50 cents or a dollar per watt as long as they use lights with a high DLC rating. Arnett says many of his customers are exploiting this program. “It saves them a ton of money, and everyone wins.” 

Fohse products are largely developed by Arnet’s business partner and old high-school buddy Alex Gerard, an electrical engineering specialist. Entrepreneur Bret Stevens is the third co-founder and partner.

Fohse now has clients in some 20 countries—from Germany to Thailand and Australia—as well as across the US. The firm has also partnered with Texas A&M University for testing vegetable cultivation methods. Born in the Minnesota town of Maple Grove, Arnet attended St. Cloud State University, obtaining a Bachelor of Science in entrepreneurship in 2012. Before moving on to Fohse, he ran CBD processor Tennessee Extracts. But he also credits his interest in agro-science to time spent in his youth on relatives’ farms in rural Minnesota, where they produced corn, soy and cattle.  

“We saw lighting as the main driving issue that nobody else was studying,” Arnet says. “Our goal is to continue providing support for the cannabis industry that we come from. As growers ourselves, we understand the pain and challenges. We grew our company without clients. We started with a handful, and we grew with them, working with our clients in their space.”