Light is one of the most important factors to consider for growing plants indoors. Without sufficient light, plants won’t be able to produce the energy they need to grow. Even if you grow plants close to the window, they won’t get adequate light, especially in the winter. Therefore you’ll need to get a grow light.

However, with so many types of grow lights available in the market, it can be difficult for you to pick the right one. To help you save your time, we’ve compiled the best grow lights to make your plants grow at their full potential.

Why are LED lights the best for option home growing?

New Technology has made LED Grow Lights a No-Brainer over the other legacy options. LED lights are pretty much guaranteed to give you better results with higher yields at a faster pace.

The benefits of using LED include lower electricity bills, higher output per watt, less heat generation, and adjustable spectrum tuning.

Energy Efficiency is a New Top Priority

First-time gardeners tend to focus on the initial price tag of grow lights and neglect the long-term costs. But electricity is likely to be one of the bigger costs long term. The more energy-efficient your lamps are, the more money you save over time.

The energy-saving that growers can expect from using LED grow lights instead of HID is around 38%.

This energy savings only takes into account savings from the fixtures. It does not account for other environmental factors where growers will save money. For example, less ventilation and air conditioning may be used, or foregone completely, depending on the size of the setup and ambient temperatures. Total savings may rise above 50% in certain scenarios.

Colour spectrum adjustment is another advantage of LED lights
While the environmental benefits of LED lighting are good, spectrum variability plays perhaps the biggest role in the LED revolution.

Now that gardeners can control the light spectrum that their plants experience, they can more accurately replicate the sun indoors and manipulate a wide range of outcomes, from how tall their plants grow to the resulting flavours and fragrances they produce.

By adjusting the light spectrum your plants experience indoors, you can control their perception of the season.

LED grow lights help you accomplish far more by mimicking the spectrum of the sun as it moves through the seasons. As the season’s change and the sun shift position in the sky, plants receive a changing light spectrum from the sun’s rays. The gradual difference in spectrum cues plants to grow leaves, grow taller, or flower, depending on the time of year.

Traditional HPS and CFL lights, on the other hand, offer only binary control — that is, the lights are either on or off. With traditional legacy lighting, you can make “daylight” last longer for your plants, but you can’t as easily trick them into thinking autumn is coming.

ECO Farm 240W LM301B Classic Quantum Board

Features:

This ECO Farm LED grow light has high Energy Efficiency with 2.7 umol/J, only consuming 240w. The veg footprint is 3 x 4 ft, Flower is 2 x 4 ft. It is equipped with Samsung LM301B Diodes — the highest light output LED available at present, create better canopy light penetration, get 40% higher yields with less energy compared with other red-blue lights. No Fan ZERO Noise, large areas of the solid aluminium heat sink, high safety performance with MEAN WELL Driver. 50% longer lifespan compared with other brand lights. Allowing you to grow with confidence. 4000K, provide everything plants desired in the natural sunlight, turn your seeds into your own supply, produce beautiful high yielding plants. Easy to see the true colour of your plants.

Atreum Lighting VELA 240W Full Spectrum Horticulture LED Grow Light

Features:

Atreum Lighting VELA LED Modules are an exceptionally power-efficient, full-spectrum light source for horticulture applications. No Fan ZERO Noise, large areas of the solid aluminium heat sink, high safety. 50% longer lifespan compared with other brand lights. Allowing you to grow with confidence. The sunlight spectrum provides everything plants desired in the natural sunlight, turn your seeds into your own supply, produce beautiful high yielding plants. Easy to see the true colour of your plants. A fully waterproof (IP65) design allows operation in wet environments. Add a DC Extension Power Cord to remotely locate the driver, and remove heat from the growing area.

Geeklight 240w monster board pro led grow light

Features:

The big feature of these grow lights is the VEG and bloom settings where you can add extra blue and red light respectively. Also have added UVA and Far Red diodes you can switch on and off separately. The 660nm red and IR light is especially useful during bloom, where it speeds up flowering time and boost yields. Turn your seeds into your own supply. And the light looks fairly natural, so it’s good for accurately monitoring plant health. It with spectrum control got different switches for different stages of growth you’ve got. With Even PPFD design. Evenly light in the edge can help higher yields. Simple design in the structure can put the led boards together easily. With RJ12 port for daisy chain, main light controls others lights. Also compatible with the control panel.

Factors to consider before buying a grow light

How much does a grow light cost?

The first thing to consider before buying a grow light is how much money you want to spend. With more states coming online with adult-use legalization, home growing is becoming more popular and growing technology is getting better and more efficient all the time.

You can find lights for under $100, but they may be low quality and not produce the right spectrum of light, and you can also easily spend as much as $2,000 for a large, state-of-the-art LED.

Consider how often you’ll be growing plants and how long it will take to pay off the initial investment — if you grow once a year, it’ll take a lot longer to pay off an expensive light than if you grow multiple harvests a year.

Aside from the price of the actual light, also take into account utilities — all lights will add to your electricity bill every month, but some more than others. High-intensity discharge lights — known as “HIDs” — may be cheaper to buy but can gobble up electricity, whereas LEDs are more efficient and kinder on your electricity bill but usually more expensive to buy.

Another consideration with the cost is that some lights run hotter than others — HIDs, for example — so they may require additional fans or an AC unit to cool down a grow space. Extra equipment means more electricity, also driving up your utility bill.

How many grow lights do I need to grow plants?

The typical home grower will only need one or two lights. Most states limit grow amounts to 6 or 12 plants, and one or two lights should be plenty for that. If you plan on running two separate rooms, one for vegetative plants and one for flowering plants, you’ll need two lights.

How big a light you need will depend on the number of plants you plan on growing, but also on the size of your space. If you’re growing in a closet or a small grow tent, you’ll only be able to fit one small light in there. If you have a wide-open basement, you could invest in a bigger light as opposed to two smaller ones.

Power equals poundage, so if you want big yields you’ll need more wattage. Professional LEDs can start at as little as 200 watts, and go up from there. A high-watt light can double the work of several low-watt bulbs.

Other considerations when choosing LED grow light

Ventilation
Ventilation is also a concern. If you’re growing in a tight space with a light that runs hot, you’ll need to have fans in there, which also take up space. If there’s not enough room for a light and a fan, you may need to invest in a light that doesn’t run as hot, such as an LED. For example, grow tents are usually built tall to allow room for equipment up top, not to grow plants all the way to the ceiling.

Plant stage
Young and mature plants, or vegetative and flowering plants, respectively, like different types of light, and you can buy grow lights that target each spectrum. Commonly, growers using HIDs will use MH bulbs for vegetative plants and HPS bulbs for flowering. Some LEDs are also designed to target different light spectra.

Safety
Make sure you have enough outlets and power available in your breaker board for your grow space to comfortably accommodate all equipment. Figure out all pieces of equipment, such as lights, fans, possibly an AC or dehumidifier, and calculate how much power they’ll require. You’ll be running this equipment every day for months, so if you don’t have enough power it can be dangerous. Never overload an electrical outlet.

Conclusion

Growing your horticultural plant using LED lighting can be an enjoyable journey and experience. You have the right to choose between multiple lights or a single higher watt grow light option. This article reviews the best-led light to help you make the right growing environment decision for your horticultural business.

Whether you are a beginner or veteran gardener, these recommendations will guarantee you save much of your time researching. It is advisable to invest in multiple LED grow lights as they allow more flexibility, optimal harvest, and power-saving advantage. Another great benefit of multiple lights is that you can always turn off some lights to reduce the growing area.