Four Factors To Consider When Choosing LED Greenhouse Lights
You must be familiar with the LED lights as these lights are now commonly being used for almost all purposes. Whether you want a domestic indoor light, a smart light, or outdoor decorative lights, you will find a lot of options that use LED lights.
Although, there is one more niche category of LED lights that are only familiar to those who have a passion for indoor plantation and botany in general. Here are some things to keep in mind while buying LED grow lights:
- The intensity of Light: This is probably the most crucial factor of LED grow light as it directly affects the growth potential of your plants. You will be needing the perfect amount of intensity regarding the plant you are going to use it for. For versatile use, choose the one that can be calibrated.
- Coverage Area: The coverage area of a LED grow light generally dictates its illumination capability and surface area. Generally, the LED grows light needs to cover the entire planting area to ensure the proper and uniform growth of the plants.
- Reliability: The LED grow lights are not the most affordable equipment when it comes to its price. Thus, buying the one that offers the most reliability makes more sense as you will not be able to repair or replace damaged LED lights on a panel with ease.
- Light Power — Understand the best ability to use for your indoor grow operation is essential if you want to have a good harvest. If your operation is small, within the product variety of around 90–120 watts things might be adequate, but because of the low-power LED lights, you may want somewhat higher. For example, the 180–360 watts range will be more than enough anywhere from a few plants to a few rows of plants.
Pros:
- Produce less heat
- Ideal for beginners
- Works extremely cool and quiet lighting system
- ETL, RoHS, and CE Certified
- Release high PAR value with 450 μmol at 18 inches
- Provides deep penetration to ensure your plants’ growth
Cons:
- Doesn’t come with an additional control switch for an easier operation
- Doesn’t offer separate bloom and veg lights for a more efficient effect
Pros:
- Easy to set and to operate
- Offers a bloom and veg setting for convenience
- Produces low heat compared with other lighting solutions for indoor plants
- Promotes faster and bigger amount of yields
- Energy-efficient and doesn’t need any extra ballast
Cons:
- Too bright to be looked at directly an eye protection
- Some units still emit a small amount of light even when turned off
ECO Farm ECOY 600W Movable LED Grow Light Bar
Pros:
- Includes a timer to save energy
- Ideal for growing all indoor plants even on hydroponics
- Operates with a quiet cooling fan with 20–30% speed
- Helps boost the plants’ defense mechanism with an expensive IR UV lamp
- Perfect for winter with warm white light
Cons:
- Not powerful enough to help tomato plants grow tall and healthy
- Too bright to be looked at directly without an eye protection
What Are the Benefits of Using LED Grow Lights?
Ever since LED bulbs were introduced in the market, their customer demand continues to increase over time. In fact, the majority of the bulbs and lighting fixtures that are sold on the market today are LEDs. Thus, even nature lovers nowadays who prefer to keep their plants indoors find ways to take advantage of these lights. So, these are the top benefits of having a good LED grow light：
- Energy-efficient
This is the number one advantage of LED grow lights to other lightings since LED bulbs consume fewer watts. However, it can produce the same light that High-Density Discharge (HID) bulbs have. Even with fewer bulbs, you can assure that the biggest portions of energy they use are converted into light than heat.
Unlike traditional lightings, LEDs don’t burn anything just to produce light. Thus, it wastes less energy which turns into heat while you can keep your energy bills at bay.
- Eco-friendly
As mentioned earlier, LED grow lights don’t contain mercury, gas, filaments, and any other toxic substances like HID lights. Instead, these light bulbs are designed and manufactured with eco-friendly materials that are 100% recyclable. Thus, you don’t have to worry about you or your plants getting harmed after being exposed to its light. To guarantee this, the best LED grow lights usually have a RoHS certification to prove its quality.
- Faster harvest cycle
Unlike outdoor plants that rely on the natural sunlight, indoor plants rely on artificial light from LEDs. These LED grow lights can be used for long hours to help your plants grow faster to increase your harvest cycle. Thus, you can regulate the red wavelength light at the right time to boost the growth of your plants.
You can also alter the daylight hours of these bulbs so you can have multiple harvests during one season.
- Healthier plants
Other artificial lightings release more UV rays, IR rays, and heat which harm the plants. But with LEDs, everything extra for the plants is reduced like the green and yellow wavelengths. Thus, your plants get just the right amount of these components which help them grow healthier and longer. In fact, you can also regulate the wavelengths of its lights which help your plants in the process of photosynthesis.
- Cooler operating temperature
Compared with HID lightings, LED grow lights produce less heat which doesn’t affect much the entire temperature indoors. This is especially true if you have a greenhouse where more LED lights are installed. Thus, you can cut costs for not needing a cooling system to keep your plants healthy.
Final Conclusion
When it comes to what brand of light you’ll ultimately decide to invest in, no one can make that decision for you.
The best thing you can do would be to research as much as possible.
Make sure you understand the environment you intend to grow in and what that environment will require.
Sizes, watts, the number of lamps — these things all depend on how many square feet you’re trying to cover.
What other gear you’ll need will also depend on what your light is already capable of providing for you. ECO Farm LED grow light bar can be your great choice.