Welcome

Welcome to my blog on LED grow lights. I hope that you will find the information on this site useful. Here is a table of contents that will be helpful for those of you just starting the research process:

How to Select a Good Light
Which Type of Gardener Should be Using LEDs?
The Pros and Cons of LED Growing Technology

Some of the visitors to my blog have asked for my personal recommendations. The truth is testing all of the different lights can be really expensive. I have a light that works perfect for my situation and I may provide a review on it in the future. However, for those of you looking for more I suggest reading these in-depth LED grow light reviews.

The Pros and Cons of Using LED Grow Lights

Opinions about LED grow lights differ from person to person. Some say LED lights will never become popular with most members of the population. Of course, many of those same people have a personal interest in seeing other technologies thrive, like HID lighting, for example. Representatives who deal in LED fixtures argue they are much better for the environment than traditional lighting sources. This article will discuss the various advantages and disadvantages associated with using LED grow lights.

Starting with Advantages

1. LED lights require less energy to operate and they can be tuned to emit colors in a specific spectrum. Plants do not use green light, so this spectrum is eliminated when the lights are used for growing. Most light fixtures produce light in every spectrum. This means they require more energy but that energy is ultimately wasted.

2. LED lights burn cooler than their HID counter parts. HID fixtures can get so hot they can actually spark a fire. Electrical energy heats the filament until it emits light. LED lamps do not have filaments and do not produce a lot of heat.

3. LED lights have a longevity that surpasses high-intensity discharge units and most other types of lighting fixtures. Many HID lights will burn for 20,000 hours while many LED lights are rated for around 50,000 hours of use.

You can plug an LED light directly into your wall outlet. 

4. An LED fixture is easier to install. The user simply plugs it into the nearest wall socket with an ordinary electrical cord. HID lights need a small generator, called a ballast, to stay lit.

Cons

1. Regardless of all the hype, LED grow lights are not exactly perfect. For one thing, they cost more to purchase in the first place. This pain should be alleviated somewhat by knowing your electric bills to run the equipment will be extremely low. There is even more good news because manufacturers are constantly making advancements in technology that are slowly bringing the costs down.

2. Unlike other types of lighting sources, individual LED bulbs cannot be replaced. While the lights will burn for tens of thousands of hours, when the light burns out, the entire unit must be replaced. Obviously, this will not happen too often but when it does, you should be prepared to take action.

This basic information should give anyone the background they need to go out and decide whether LED grow lights are the best choice for them.

Selecting a Good LED Grow Light - What You Need to Know!

Purchasing an LED grow light can be frustrating if you don't
know what to look for. 

Indoor gardeners who have used LED grow lights have been quite satisfied with their performance.  There are some people, however, who have had bad experiences and a lot of that dissatisfaction comes from the fact that they may not have chosen a good light.  Below, discover how you can choose superior LED grow lights.

1.  The Beam Angle.  When you buy an LED light you should be looking at the beam angle. There are generally three to choose from: 60, 90, and 120 degree angles.  Taller plants do better with the 60 degree because the light is more intense.  The 120 degree is best for wide areas, such as when growing several short plants. People who purchase 120 degree lights for a tall plant will likely have a bad experience.

 2.  Check the warranty.  Superior LED lights come with a minimum of a year warranty, with the best of those providing a five-year warranty.  Any product that is backed by the manufacturer is a good one.

 3.  Trial Period.  This is a fairly new type of technology, so use the 30 day trial period to your advantage.  Return it if it is not giving you the results you want. If the light you are looking at doesn’t have a trial period, then think twice about buying it.

4.  The Heat Sink.  When the chips of the LED lights overheat, they can break, which is often a complaint among consumers.  Therefore, a quality heat sink needs to be in place, having lots of fins and a quality fan.

A quality heat sink will have lots of fins.

5.  The Wattage.  The watts that your light will draw are what will affect your energy bill and your plant.  So, if a light is listed at 100 W, but only draws 70 W, then you are only paying for the latter.  However, this may affect the condition of your plants in a negative way if you think you are getting more power than you actually are.

6.  Spectral Wave Length.  This is very important to the growth of your plants.  Wavelengths are calculated by color, ultraviolet and blue being short and red and infrared being long.

Manufacturers can control the exact spectrum of LED grow lights, unlike with other types of lights and, of course the sun.  This is important because scientists have discovered that plants do not require the use of every color of light.

Therefore, purchasing the right one will have a huge impact on the condition, the health, and the growth of your plants.  Red lights induced flowering, while blue light induced vegetation or growth.  So, you should shop accordingly to your needs.  You can also purchase one that has both red and blue lights.

In Conclusion

Understanding the criteria that comes with choosing the perfect LED grow lights will help you with all your gardening needs. It will also help you avoid a bad experience. 

Who Benefits from LED Grow Lights

For the longest time, indoor gardeners have benefited from high intensity discharge lights, allowing them to grow their plants indoors, regardless of the weather conditions outdoors.  Unfortunately, these lights were inefficient with regards to energy consumption, unlike LED grow lights.  That allows people like me to grow plants like tomatoes or any flowers even in January.

Basically, any plant can be grown using these lights, even those that are known to require maximum sunlight, such as watermelons, for example.

Greenhouses and Commercial Growers

Since the beginning of this indoor lighting technology, commercial growers and greenhouse owners have used it extensively to maximize profits.  They have also used them to their fullest advantages, helping their plants grow bigger, taller and leafier.  Those in the vegetable and fruit growing businesses have experienced greater harvests when using these lights, meaning that there really is no off-season.  In other words, they can grow any fruits and any vegetables at any time of the year.

Remember that some plants require up to 16 hours of light each day. The sun isn’t always up for that long and in those cases growing light technology is needed.

Aquarium and Reef Lighting

Even the aquarium industry is seeing the benefits of LED lighting because these lights create incredibly colored plants in any type of water, be it fresh water or salt water.  In addition to the improved lighting, LED lights are also more energy efficient, drawing less power.

Leaders in the industry such as PetSmart are now all for LED lights for use in aquariums, as they too have seen the benefits they bring.

Medical Marijuana

Medicinal marijuana is being grown legally in many states, especially California, by organizations and even individuals who maintain a specific license to do so.  For obvious reasons, those who grow medical marijuana prefer to do so indoors rather than outdoors.

These organizations and individuals who hold the special license to grow medical cannabis are now switching to LED lights as opposed to using the traditional HID lights.  The reason for the switch is the savings that they can enjoy with regards to energy.

Conclusion

As you can see, numerous industries and individuals are enjoying the benefits and advantages that these lights bring.  As time passes, they are becoming more widely accepted.  The fact that the price of LED lighting has begun to drop considerably, it is likely that they will replace the traditional options of the past.

Hot Indoor Growing Topic: LEDs or HIDs?

For those who don't live in Florida or Hawaii, or some other warm area, the cultivating/gardening season might seem quite short (I know it does for me). Two or three months of fresh produce just simply aren’t sufficient. The good thing is experts have supplied a way for us to keep cultivating fresh fruits as well as vegetables even during the cool winter months. Interior growing lights offer all the lighting your plants will ever need. This means you no longer have to be jealous of your neighbors in Florida.  

What Lights are Available?

You may have heard of indoor growing lights, but you might want to know what some of your general options are. There is an overwhelming amount of inside growing lights out there. That being said, the two types that realistically work the very best tend to be HID (High-Intensity Discharge) lighting as well as LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lights.

In earlier times Metallic-Halide and High-Pressure Sodium (both of them are types of HID lamps) lights were the only indoor lights being used. Just recently (within the past 10 years or so), more and more people are beginning to invest in LED plant lighting fixtures. This has resulted in a rather fierce debate about which lamps are better. Personally, I believe both work great, however we'll spend some time to evaluate a few of the issues.

Price Tag

Whether businesses like it or not the price of a product is extremely important to us consumers. HIDs are flat-out less expensive when compared to LEDs. As I mentioned LED grow lights are still relatively new and their selling prices represent it (even though costs are decreasing constantly). A superb HID plant light system might only set you back around 200 bucks. A great LED grow light system will cost you a minimum of $500. Now this is considering you want a light that will grow the plant from start to finish. If you just want a light to get your plants started, then the price tag is considerably less.

In defense of LEDs it should also be considered that as time passes LED plant lights could possibly save your hard-earned dollars. LEDs survive for a longer period (meaning you don’t have to buy a new one every year like you do with an HID) plus they utilize less energy.

After a year or more Light Emitting Diode lights could possibly end up being less costly when compared to HIDs (this really depends on your replacement rate and energy rate). That being said, when people who are on an extremely tight budget are asking me which light to go with I usually end up recommending an HID light.

 

Heat Diffusion

Using a term like “High-Intensity” you can visualize that HIDs make quite a bit of heat. The truth is HIDs can get really scorching hot. This is a big deal when you are growing inside because you've got to worry about burning your plants and your house. If you choose to go with an HID planting system, make sure you don’t burn your house down, seriously.  

HIDs require heating up the filament to produce light. 

LED plant lighting, on the other hand, puts off minimal heat. The entire concept behind the Light Emitting Diode is to develop an efficient light that does not require heat to produce light. HIDs require heat to light up the filament that produces light (kind of like a fire). LEDs use very interesting technology that doesn’t require heating up a filament. It involves electrons dropping in energy orbits and photons shooting off. It’s a topic for another day because it usually takes me about 2,000 words to describe it.

Management of Wavelength or Color

If you can remember back to first grade science, you will recollect that the sun sets off a spectrum of various colors. These colors can be seen in a rainbow. Astonishingly, scientists have discovered that crops usually do not utilize all of the colors or wavelengths of light through during the process of photosynthesis. In fact, researchers have discovered that blue and red are the two wavelengths most critical for vegetation and flowering respectively.

This is interesting because LED grow lights can be made to beam only particular colors. Which means that the ideal quantity of every single color a plant needs may be dialed in with LED lighting! This in turn results in one large advantage for LEDs: significantly less power is needed because wasteful lighting need not be produced. In the present environment, using a reduced amount of electricity is crucial.

HID plant lighting can't be manufactured to simply emit certain wavelengths or shades. The technology of the filament simply doesn’t allow for it. This means that they use up a lot more energy than needed.

Interesting, So Which Light Do I Recommend?

Regrettably there's no perfect recommendation. A number of people swear by Light Emitting Diode grow technology while other people are just as captivated with HID grow lights. Each light possesses its particular disadvantages and advantages. HIDs possess a successful history and are generally economical. Light Emitting Diodes don’t produce heat, can generate specific wavelengths, and are better for mother earth.