Welcome to this comprehensive resource on LED grow lights. You will find the following information within the blog:
The Pros and Cons of LED Growing Technology
Criteria for Purchasing a High-Quality Light
I rounded up all of this information in my quest to find the best LED grow light. I hope it helps someone. Let me know if you have any questions. Here’s another great resource on the subject: www.ledgrowlightsreview.org.
The benefits of using LED grow lights have been heavily debated. While there are people who would like to see the entire world using this type of indoor garden light because of their environmental benefits, there are also others who would like to convince consumers that LED lights are overpriced garbage. Regardless of your views when it comes to LED lights, you should read the following pros and cons and decide where you stand.
The Pros
1. LED lights last longer than HID (High-Intensity Discharge) lights. While HID lights can be used for around 18,000 hours, LED lights have an average lifespan of 50,000 hours.
2. LED lights do not emit excessive amounts of heat when in use. This means that they can be used safely in greenhouses and indoor gardens without the risk of causing harm to the house or indoor plants. HID lights usually overheat and have been known to raze down both plants and houses when left unattended for some time.
Frequent Visitors to Homes and Businesses with HID Lights
3. The main reason why environmentalists support the use of LED lights is because they do not require a lot of energy in order to produce their brilliant light. The light produced by LED lamps is sufficient for plant use nothing extra. For instance, LED grow lights can be fine-tuned to produce the spectrum of light that is useful for plant growth. This means that colors like green will not be produced because plants do not need it. Traditional grow lights produce the entire spectrum of light some of which are reflected by the plant leading to wastage (is that a word?) of energy.
4. LED-based grow lights are simply more convenient than other sources of light. For instance, they can be simply plugged into the wall and switched on to produce light unlike HID lights that require ballasts.
The Cons
1. It is important to note that LED lights are not as perfect as some people have made them to appear to be. For instance, these lights are usually more expensive to procure compared to HID lights. However, the cost is expected to reduce as technology continues to advance.
2. LED grow lights usually consist of numerous LED lamps, when one of these lamps burns out, it cannot be replaced. This means that when some of the lamps in the grow light are not working, the entire unit has to be replaced.
Hopefully, this article has enlightened you more on LED grow lights. Make your decision and start enjoying your indoor gardening activities.
Many satisfied growers have used LED Grow Lights, but some have been unhappy with the LED growing technology. The reason for this unhappiness is usually that the purchaser has not chosen a good quality grow light. These tips should assist any grower wanting to find excellent quality LED grow lighting.
1. Trial Period - This is a fairly new technology therefore there will be companies who want to take advantage of first time buyers. Ensure that you get a light that has at least a 30 day trial period. This is a great way to ensure that you get a good light and you can test it out, if it does not work for your plants you can return the product.
2. Actual Watts Drawn - These lights have diodes on them and a one watt diode will not draw 1 watt of light. There are complex scientific explanations for this but you will find that a 1 watt diode actually draws less than 1 watt of power. This means in practice that a light that is sold as a 200 watt light might only actually draw 120 watts. When buying be aware of the actual watts that can be drawn, this is listed on the fine print on the packet but with some products you may have to enquire. Don’t make the mistake of buying a 500 watt light that may only draw 40 watts.
3. Spectral Wave Length - This is very important with LED grow lighting. Wave-lengths are classified by color. Blue wave-lengths are short, red wave-lengths are long.
With these lights scientists have worked out how to control the spectrum of light that is emitted from them. This is important as plants only use some of the light spectrum to grow.
It has been discovered that red light will induce a plant to flower while blue light will encourage vegetation to grow. Therefore of you want flowers you can make sure that you use the red spectrum on your grow light.
4. Heat Sink - To check how long a LED light will last you will need to check the heat sink. LED chips will break if they are overheated so this means that an effective heat sink needs to be in place. Check that the light you are buying has a heat sink with several fins and an effective fan.
5. Warranty - A good LED light will come with a one year warranty. Some of the higher quality lights will come with a five year warranty. Always pick a light that has at least a one year warranty.
6 - Beam Angle - The last thing that you need to check is the beam angle. There are standard beam angles available at 60 degrees, 90 degrees and 120 degrees. The angle you will need will depend on what type of plant you are growing and there size. For instance a tall plant will be better under a 60 degree angle.
Conclusion
It is hoped that these tips have been useful to you and that now you will feel more confident in what to look for when purchasing an LED grow light.
When I talk to friends and neighbors about grow lights they generally seem perplexed. They always ask me, “Who’s using these lights anyway?” Well the truth is your casual gardener probably isn’t going to be using a grow light. However, as the level of enthusiasm for gardening grows, so does the desire for a grow light. You might be surprised how many people are using these lights. I did a very informal poll of people in my neighborhood and was surprised to find that about 5 of the 50 or so houses in my neighborhood were indeed using grow lights. They all agreed that LED grow lights were the grow lights of the future. Below are some of the groups who are currently using LEDs to grow plants.
Aquarium Lighting
LEDs are great for aquariums
There are really three reasons that aquariums need light: (1) People like to be able to actually see what’s in the aquarium. (2) The algae, reef, and other plants in the aquarium need the light in order for the process of photosynthesis to occur. (3) The fish actually need the light in order to survive and grow strong and healthy.
There are several types of lights that are used for aquarium lighting; incandescent, fluorescent, LEDs, and metallic halide to name a few. Incandescent lights aren’t great when it comes to plant growth, but they do give off a nice, natural color light (at least we assume it’s natural because we are used to seeing it). A few years back Metallic-Halides were the best choice when it came to aquariums with plants in them, but now more and more experts are going with LEDs because of their energy efficiency.
Medicinal Marijuana
Oddly enough, medical cannabis is thought to help with nausea and vomiting. In addition it helps provide an appetite to those who are undergoing chemotherapy to help with their cancer. It’s also thought to work quite well as a pain killer. Because growing cannabis outdoors would be relatively difficult and possibly embarrassing many licensed growers use grow lights. LEDs are becoming more popular in this industry amongst individuals and commercial growers due to their efficiency and effectiveness.
Commercial Greenhouses and Plant Nurseries
Many greenhouses need supplemental lighting in order to be effective all year round. For example anywhere north of the 40 degree latitudinal line (Minnesota) in the United States will likely need supplemental lighting from the months of October to March (according to my research). These greenhouses and nurseries have traditionally used high-intensity discharge (HID) lights, but are now moving to LED grow lights because of their energy and cost savings. Many experts believe that LEDs will be the predominant light in the future (when their upfront costs come down).
Greenhouses often need additional lighting in the winter
Hobby Gardeners
People who don’t live in a tropical environment can’t garden all year round without some supplemental lighting. Garden enthusiasts have found that indoor gardens can be healthy and just as rewarding as outdoor gardens. More and more hobbyists are choosing LED growing lights because they are a green technology, they don’t generate a lot of heat and thus are safer for indoors, and they save on the electricity bills.
For folks who do not dwell near the equator, the cultivating/gardening period may appear too short. Two or three months of fresh produce simply is not adequate. The good news is researchers already have furnished a method for people to carry on growing fruits and veggies even through the freezing winter season when the sun doesn’t seem to shine. Indoor cultivating lights supply most of the lighting your fruits or veggies are likely to require.
Precisely what Lighting fixtures are Generally Offered?
There are several indoor growing lights on the market, although the types which work the most efficiently are usually HID (High-Intensity Discharge) lamps and LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lights. In earlier times Metallic-Halide and High-Pressure Sodium grow lighting fixtures were the sole lights being employed. Fairly recently, a lot more people are starting to invest in LED grow equipment and lighting. It has ended in a question regarding which lamps are significantly better. Personally, I think that each works great, nevertheless let’s spend some time to take a look at the various issues.
Temperature Diffusion
Using a term like “High-Intensity” you can imagine that HID lighting puts out quite a bit of heat. The simple truth is HIDs can get very scorching and you have to make use of them using extreme care or else your crops and/or house can get scorched. If you opt to select an HID growing system, then you are going to really need to ensure you have a cooling device available.
LED plant lamps in contrast put off a very small amount of heat. The whole concept driving the LED light movement was efficiency. More efficiency means less energy and less heat.
Wavelength and Color Control
If you can ever recall back to the first science courses you took, you’ll recall that the sun puts off an array of various colors. If you employ a prism in the sun you would see all these numerous colors. Astonishingly research workers have realized that crops really don’t use all of the colors of sunshine through the process of photosynthesis. In fact, scientists have realized that blue and also red are the two most important colors meant for plant life.
LED grow lights are often designed to simply beam specific colors (for example red light or blue light). Which means the suitable quantity of each color may be programmed utilizing this technology (pretty cool stuff if you asked me). This results in a large advantage for LEDs: less electricity is necessary given that inefficient and unnecessary light will not be generated. In the current environment, making due with much less energy is crucial.
HID plant equipment and lighting conversely can’t be made to produce selected wavelengths. This means that they use up far more electricity than necessary because they are creating wavelengths that aren’t used by the plants. Nevertheless, the reality is: they get the job done.
Price
HIDs clearly are cheaper when compared with Light Emitting Diodes. LED grow lighting fixtures are really somewhat new and, unfortunately, their particular prices represent this (despite the fact that pricing is decreasing all the time). An excellent HID plant lighting product might merely cost you around 200 dollars. A good Light Emitting Diode grow light device can cost you no less than $400 except in cases where you make the light yourself. Keep in mind we are talking for industrial-sized lights not, small lights that could be used to grow one tiny plant.
It should be pointed out that after some time using LEDs could possibly cost less money. LEDs work for a longer time (that means fewer replacement expenses) and they utilize significantly less energy. After a couple of years Light Emitting Diodes could possibly be much less expensive when compared with HIDs depending on your electricity bills. Having said that, almost all of you who are money-conscious will be much better off employing HID plant lighting fixtures.
The Conclusion
The fact is that there is no one correct response (sorry about that). A lot of people recommend Light Emitting Diode grow lighting and many are just as excited about HID plant lighting. The two lighting fixtures have their disadvantages and advantages. HIDs have a proven history and are generally reasonably priced. LEDs appear promising and they’re cost effective. I think you can’t get it wrong using either of them.
