How to choose the best led grow light? 2020 Updated
What To Look For In An LED Grow Light?
Since many of our first-time buyers experience difficulty choosing the best LED grow lights for their plant’s particular needs, our team of experts offer these tips for choosing LED grow lights. Here you`ll find all the vital information for making an informed choice and selecting the right product and model.
Grow Light Basics
All green plants require light to perform photosythesis, during which special cells convert the energy contained in the light into sugars. In the process, plants give off oxygen. Ahhhh. No wonder it’s so relaxing to spend time in a plant-filled room.
Plants vary widely in how much light they need to thrive. Low-light houseplants, such as dracaenas, will generally do fine in a north-facing window. Fruiting edibles, such as tomatoes, need much brighter light — more than even a south-facing window can supply, especially in winter.
The LED Chip
You always want to look for chips that are at least 3W, any less than that won’t give your plants enough consistent light coverage. This means each chip needs to be 3W, not 3 lights of 1W LEDS, so look out for that when reading the description. The 3W chip offers the best quality in whites, blues and reds.
The Output
This is also important; you want to read product descriptions for total output. How many units does the lamp claim to have? This can be 300W, 400, 600 or even 1000. Always check for the output and look for at least 300W.
Understand that when it comes to LEDs you can’t always get 100% power so you usually end up with slightly less wattage than what the recommended is, and chips will always burn out, no matter what the quality, so the higher a wattage the more you can compensate for wattage loss.
The Spectrum
Remember that it is the red blues, IR and UV that also counts when growing your marijuana crop, so you want to stick to the ideal PAR values. Look for blues that have a range from 440–470nm, with rends in the 640 to 660nm.
What is the size of your grow space?
The size of your grow space will dictate the size and number of an LED units you purchase. A good rule-of-thumb for LED grow lights is 32 watts of actual wattage per square foot of growing space for flowering medical or other large flowering plants. For example, if you measured your growing space to be 16 square feet, you would want to purchase at least a 500–550 watt grow light (assuming the plants are congregated in a single area and you are flowering a plant that requires a lot of light. Vegetative growth for high-light plants need about half this wattage.).
Easiness of Use and Flexibility
Sometimes you’ll have to adjust the position of your lamps, based on the plant type and growth stage. Quality LED lamps are efficient, but also easy to use and will let you fine tune their placement with little effort.
Also, it is important that the wavelength and light intensity are adjustable as well. Look for products that are easy to maintain and ready to use straight out of the packaging.
Phlizon Newest 1200W LED Plant Grow Light
This new style grow light has many key features to offer when you are shopping around for the best grow lights led to meet your needs. It is not only sleek and simple in appearance, it also serves to get your plants growing with a full spectrum design. There are two color coded buttons to choose which stage your plants are at so that the most efficient lighting is being output — either Veg or Bloom. You won’t have to worry about the reflector melting or becoming too hot since there isn’t one with this light.
This LED light is a great size for gardens up to 3x3 feet and will still work powerfully with the 1200 watts of light it outputs. There are two cooling fans to protect from high heat output, which would ultimately affect your growing environment. You will enjoy the energy saving abilities when you get your next utility bill since this light uses only the equivalent of 300 watts of power.
Out of the hundreds of lights we’ve reviewed, the BESTVA 2000W definitely hits the sweet spot in terms of most bang for your buck. This light is priced modestly and runs very cool. It works great in different sized tents and the light spread is second to none.
These lights are made from China, but don’t let that fool you, they’re very powerful and work very well for any type of grow. The fans are extremely quiet. It’s recommended that during the flowering stage, you limit the use of this light to a 4x4 space in order to maximize for efficiency and light intensity. The design of this light allows for great light penetration and the set up is easy with minimal weight restrictions.
The new and improved Reflector Series model features a veg/flower switch, so it’s better than some of the LED grow lights for sale on the market. This LED grow light definitely shined during the flowering stage, the results that we saw were incredible. We were extremely impressed with this grow light, especially with the brightness (our plants were thriving).
Top considerations when buying an LED grow light on a Budget:
1. Light Intensity
2. Spectrum
3. Quality parts — To ensure the fixture will stand the test of time. Do your research
You can buy a cheap LED grow light if you do your research and consider a manufacture’s specifications so you know what you are getting. This will be important as the higher-quality grow light typically yield the Best Results.