LED Grow Lights

When it comes to determining what is the best way that plants and gardens are going to grow indoors or in greenhouses, there are many different factors that can affect the process. From the amount of watering that is done, to the soil that is used as well as the temperature can all have an impact. One of the areas that can often get overlooked when setting up an area that is conducive to growing is the type of lighting that you will be using.

While HID lighting has been typically used in the past, there is a growing shifting of the tides now over to LED grow lights. Technology advancements have brought about better lighting in the form of these grow lights that can change the way your indoor growing area looks and feels. The benefits to using this type of light are numerous in nature and it can change the way you look at your lighting situation for indoor growth going forward.

There are many benefits to using LED grow lights over the standard HID lighting, such as:

1.       Energy savings – grow lights produce less heat than other types of lighting and they also use less power.

2.       Little maintenance – LED grow lights can get up to 100,000 hours of life per bulb.

3.       Focused light – with grow lights, it only gives off the light that your plants need.

With the invention of LED grow lights has come the cropping up of many different voices saying the LED grow lights are better or worse than other types of lights to help your plants grow indoors. Unfortunately a lot of people spew misinformation that confuses people when it comes to making the right choice for indoor lighting. Here is a comparison look at LED grow lights vs. other types of lighting.

When it comes to bulb life, LED lights on average last anywhere from seven to 10 years before you will need to have them replaced out. They also used 70-80% less electricity than most HID lighting solutions. Because the lights give off very little heat, it also means that you are not required to have cooling fans or reflectors which may be required if you go with other types of indoor lighting.

There are several different types of LED grow lights in the marketplace. Here is a look at a few of the more common ones.

1.       UFO LED Grow Lights – UFO lights use up only 80 watts of power and provide good coverage thanks to the angled directional bulbs. The angled bulbs mean they can hit the plants directly instead of requiring some type of reflection device to direct the light to them.

2.       Supernova LED Grow Lights – a very strong light in the LED category, thanks to seven circuit boards that offer very high intensity of light to cover a 5’ x 5’ space. The brightness offered by this light is three times greater than what you will get from a standard LED light.

As with most technology items, LED Grow Lights have come a long way in a short amount of time due to rapid advancements. Over time, the prices have come down making it more affordable for people to be able to purchase them and grow nice looking and good quality plants inside. If you tried these lights several years ago and wrote them off as junk or a scam, it might be time to take another look. NASA has even gotten into the act of using LED grow lights to help get plant life going on their space ships.