Inexperienced growers, how to choose the best LED grow lights
If you are an indoor gardening enthusiast, but still a novice who does not understand the working principle of indoor gardening, you first need to find different materials to learn, right?
During this learning process, you will find that indoor growth requires a very important piece of equipment: LED plant growth lights. Since these plants are grown internally, they need an LED plant growth light that can simulate sunlight and drive photosynthesis.
You will see many lights claiming to be "best grow lights", but there are actually four main types of these lights: fluorescent grow lights, MH, HPS bulbs, and LED grow lights.
If you read the Wikipedia article about plant growth lights, you will find that LED plant growth lights are by far the best lighting. Needless to say, the first few traditional lamps have their own merits; they are all very cheap and can be bought almost anywhere. But their shortcomings are also obvious, such as too much heat, or the spectrum cannot meet the needs of plants.
For some plants that require a lot of light to grow, traditional lights cannot compete with LED lights in some aspects. In this blog, we will list some basic knowledge about choosing the perfect LED plant growth lighting.
8 key features you should know about LED plant growth lights
1. PAR
PAR stands for "photosynthetically active radiation". It is a metric used in plants, while lumens are used in humans. So plants don't care how bright your lamps look. PAR in lighting is a wavelength in the visible light range of 400 to 700 nanometers (nm), and plants use this range for photosynthesis or growth.
2.PPF&PPFD
There are two stages related to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). They are photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) and photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD).
PPF simply describes the number of photons produced by the LED growth lamp in the PAR wavelength range in one second.
PPF is measured in units called micromoles (umol). You can use PPF to determine if your plant growth light is "strong enough."
PPFD is the number of photons that hit the canopy of a plant in a given second. This is measured in micromoles (umol). The larger the value, the better.
The difference between PPF and PPFD is that PPF is the light intensity measured at the light source, while PPFD is the light intensity measured on the surface of the plant.
3. Photon Efficacy
Photon efficiency is a measure of how well a light source produces visible light. The unit of efficiency is Joules per second (J/s). If you know the PPF of the light and the input wattage, you can easily calculate the photon efficiency. The higher this number is, the higher the efficiency of the led plant growth lamp to convert electrical energy into photons. Therefore, be sure to confirm this with the lighting manufacturer.
4. LED chip
Chip is the most necessary and basic aspect of LED plant growth lighting. Therefore, the manufacturing of chips must keep durability and efficiency in mind.
A suitable LED chip can hardly appear color inconsistency while maintaining voltage and intensity. Elaborate chips can produce effective and uniform LED plant growth lights, which can support a variety of crops.
5. Spectrum
The spectrum refers to the electromagnetic wavelength of the light generated by the light source to promote plant growth. In order to carry out photosynthesis, plants use light in the PAR (Photosynthesis Effective Radiation) region. The wavelength of this region (400nm-700nm) is measured in nanometers (nm).
LED plant growth light full spectrum
LED lighting stimulates the colors of sunlight from red and yellow to blue and purple, and plants use this full spectrum for the photosynthesis process.
Red light and blue light are the most critical for plants. Blue represents plant growth stage, while red represents flowering.
In addition to red and blue, other wavelengths are also conducive to certain stages of plant growth.
Ultraviolet rays help protect plants from insects and diseases, while more infrared rays than normal will make your plants think they are covered by something, so they need to grow taller to get more light.
Compared with other wavelengths, green light can penetrate plant leaves farther and deep into the canopy.
The ideal spectrum can help accelerate vegetation, increase flowering, accelerate growth, and so on. Whether the light source is an auxiliary light source (such as a greenhouse) or the only light source also affects which spectrum should be used.
Therefore, equipping your indoor plants with full-spectrum LED grow lights means that it can provide all the wavelengths present in natural light. All you need to do is to switch the amount of light the plant needs in different growth stages.
6. Heat dissipation
Although LEDs emit less heat than other traditional plant lights, putting many LEDs together, they still need a cooling system to keep the body cool at all times. Some of the best LED lights on the market have a heat sink to release extra heat. This means that there are no noisy fans, and no power is wasted by powering them.
7. Lighting coverage
Every LED grow light you consider should contain information about lighting coverage. This refers to the area covered by the light falling on the plant, usually in square feet.
A good coverage area is very important. Not only the size and lens of the LED grow light determine your coverage area, but also the height of the suspension. The farther the distance between the lamp and the plant, the larger the area, but the lower the PPFD.
LED grow light coverage
Suppose you hang a light 12 feet from the canopy. You increase the suspension height to a distance of 24 feet. You will now have a much lower light intensity than before.
This is why it is very important to pay attention to the suspension height and coverage area when choosing LED plant growth lights.
8. Wattage
When it comes to the wattage of LED grow lights, this indicator refers to two things. The 550w LED light can show that it can really absorb 550w energy from the wall, or it can provide the brightness power equivalent to the 550wMH/HID growth light.
Therefore, please pay attention to what the specified wattage of LED plant growth lamp means. Our LED plant growth light can actually provide what it says on the Internet.
4 ways to increase crop yields with LED plant lights
Spectral distribution
The optimal spectral distribution and light intensity of led plant growth may vary depending on the plant species and its unique needs, but every grower needs a reliable and uniform distribution of PAR, that is, photosynthetically effective radiation, which is suitable for the growth cycle of the plant at various stages of the spectrum . We have carefully designed our spectrum to be suitable for both the warmer red wavelengths that replicate summer growth conditions and promote higher plant growth, and the cooler blue wavelengths that promote the production of terpenes and trichomes during the germination or fruiting period.
Easy to adapt
In the event of any changes to your indoor planting facilities, LED plant growth lights can be easily adapted and are easy to move, repair or maintain. Thanks to the end-to-end modular design, each of our LED plant growth lights can be turned on to replace the circuit board and LED panel without removing the light from the growth chamber. Whether you choose to switch crop production, change cultures, or add new plants to production, LED plant growth lights are suitable for any environment or facility at any stage of the plant growth cycle. Over time, complete control of LED plant growth lamps and easy and easy maintenance access introduces a new way to change and grow your business.
Efficient and no waste
Many older generations of LED grow lights rely on complex mechanical fans usually built into the lamps to blow heat away from the LED chips. This is a manifestation of poor residential design. The mechanical fan not only requires additional power to supply power, which reduces the overall efficiency of the lamp, but also may become a potential point of electrical and mechanical failure, which is a headache that no grower can get rid of. The fixture is designed with double folding aluminum fins built into the housing to increase the surface area and fanless radiator, ensuring a lower operating temperature than any of our competitors. Save effective energy and reduce unnecessary troubles.
Product quality
Many of the LED grow lights on the market are not suitable for commercial and industrial operations. This is mainly due to the low quality of their housings, problems with the fans, and excessive light overflow due to lack of optics for focusing the beam propagation . LED is the most important engineering and innovation leader in industrial LED lighting technology, providing an unprecedented level of quality, craftsmanship and spectrum optimization for the horticulture industry, enabling your planting business to reach the highest standards of today's technology. Experience the excellent quality of Yaorong Technology’s LED plant growth lamp technology and the industry’s only 10-year warranty.
Conclusion
Good lighting is an important factor in determining plant yield and other factors, such as the strain you are using and planting experience.
If you pay attention to the above factors when choosing LED plant growth lights, you can definitely get the best LED plant growth lights for your plants. In terms of minimizing electricity costs while maximizing plant health, the right LED grow lights will bring you the most benefits.
