Finding The Right Light For Grow for Indoor growers finding the Right light for the right stage is key in this case well covering the right type of light for veg (green links are Links to amazon products ) HID Grow lights HID or High-intensity Discharge grow lights are somewhat of a high standard in the cannabis growing industry. Many growers trust HID lighting and believe that they will recieve the best and biggest yields. There are two main class of HID lights, MH (Metal Halide) lights and HPS (High Pressure Sodium) lights. The difference between the two is that MH lights give a “cooler”, blueish light range from 5000 to 6500 kelvin. HPS lights sit at the red zone of the spectrum range around 2700 . Having said that MH lights are appropriate for the vegetative phase of your plants and HPS better for flowering. Most advanced growers, therefore, use a combination of MH/HPS bulbs for the duration of their grow. If for some reason you need to choose one type of HID for the entire grow you should get an HPS light. 600W HPS lights are the most popular class of HID lights because they provide a great balance between how much light they produce and how much electricity they use. Growers that want to grow using HID lighting can usually get complete sets that include the bulbs, ballast and a reflector. Led Grow lights LED grow lights with more lumens per watt and modern Chips on Board technology can now provide adequate light intensity and penetration for even the most demanding grows. Today, LEDs can compete or even exceed other types of grow lighting including HID lights - although you need to get the right ones. LEDs are the most energy-efficient type of grow light. This means they can provide the most light compared to their running costs! Another advantage of LED lights is that they run much cooler compared to HID lighting and hardly ever producing any heat at all. means there is less risk of “burning” your plants from too much heat plus it helps to keep temperatures in your grow room down. FLUORESCENT GROW LIGHTS You can get these Fluorescent lights at many places, including Retail Store, home improvement stores and most grocery stores. They are particularly suited to small grows and make great affordable starter lights.because there easy to obtain and have a low cost are among the benifits of CFL grow lights. These bulbs have normal sockets so you can use them with any typical light fixture. Commonly used CFLs for growing cannabis range from 40W and upwards. They 're various colour temperatures such as “daylight” at 6500K or “warm white” with a more reddish light spectrum at 2700K. Bulbs with a “daylight” spectrum are more suitable for the vegetative growth phase while the “warmer” spectrum the more reddish light are better for the flowering of your plants. If you have a question
Good basic info. Thanks for taking the time to write it up. I'll play devil's advocate. LED lights produce hardly any heat at all? Anyone that's put 750 watts of led in a 4x4 tent can tell you that they make significant amounts of heat and it's harder to get rid of because they don't typically have vented hood fixtures that are very efficient at removing heat like HID. I was very surprised at how hot my HLG QB260 is. It's around the same wattage as my platinum p450 but it raised my tent's temps at least 4-5 degrees. I think it's from the increased output. You can't make massive amounts of light and not make heat. Watt for watt leds are cooler running but without vented hoods they can become hard to cool in higher watt setups. I am an LED grower veg and bloom. I love them but lately in the summer I'm having a hard time keeping my temps below 84-85. I wish they made hardly any heat. What they do have is a different growth pattern with tighter nodes then HID. Many have a better light spectrum that can result in higher potency, and the same areas can be covered with about 50% less wattage or more now with the highest quality leds. CMH lights? Ceramic Metal Halide? They deserve a section. There is DE CMH stuff out now that is pretty impressive for the price. DE HPS lights are much better performers in ppfd then single. Fluorescent grow lights is a broad category and there's a big difference between a T5HO fixture that put out around 100 lumens per watt and a 250 watt cfl batwing that comes in at around 40 lumens per watt. I've never seen compact bulb CFL grown bud I wanted. I try to discourage anyone flowering with one and disappointing themselves. They do veg decently. Something useful for people when choosing a light for their grow room is how many watts per square foot they need for veg and bloom. 30-50 was a good rule of thumb for led depending on quality of output. Better higher output lights can be ran close to 30 watts per square. Cheaper panels are better off ran up close to 50 for good production in flower. 50-70 watts per square is a good ballpark for HID in bloom. Other lighting is going to be even more power hungry then HID because it's less efficient. That's one reason you can't make good buds with CFL's. You need so many watts to have enough lumens you'll never keep it cool enough. In veg 15-25 watts a square works for led or less if you spread the light with many smaller fixtures. I get away with 11.2 watts per square. With hid and other lighting veg requires more like around 30-50 watts per square foot. If you keep your lighting's power in those levels for your amount of square footage you'll grow good plants. When designing a room and a lighting system to cover it you must also always consider the footprint of the light and attempt to design the width and length of the room to fit in the correct amount of fixtures with the right overlap for good coverage all the way to the edges. Lighting should also always be considered in actual wattage. LED are sometimes sold in rated watts which just represent how many led's are in the array of what wattage. That doesn't have anything to do with what wattage the fixture is ran at. That is what will determine what it can cover and the quality of the leds in the array. Always dig through the fine print on your led panel and find the actual watt number. They are not magic and only the highest end ones are capable of covering areas with 30 watts per square range. Most you'll want up around 45 or so.
Thanks tbone for the info. I should have made a different LED purchase had I understood this beforehand. Hopefully more people understand their lighting needs because of your post. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Great stuff both you guys, thanks for taking the time, I am running 1100 true blurple watts in a 5x5 and I'm in the middle of summer, I have to keep the house cold as hell to keep my tent in the high 70's, super inefficient for me to grow in the summer, Looking to get a couple boards and, or rocking out a couple of those timber grow lights, boards and cobs are all the rage in the led game right now, and I hear rumors new tech is being developed as we speak. Should be an interesting winter Booms summer scrog series Boom4200 winter spring SUMMER grow journal
A watt is a watt. If you have 1000 watt hps and an led pulling 1000 watts from the wall, the cooling requirements are, very close to, the same for both. The bigger difference is claimed that you can use a lower wattage led in place of the hps so you will have less heat generated. So when manufacturers claim led gen less heat, they are correct in that watt for watt leads produce a bit less heat and more light b/c they are a bit more efficient, but the bigger savings in heat come from the use of lower wattage to get the same results as non led lights. I am not saying one is better than the other. I am just stating what manufacturers are claiming .
i agree with you but it also depends on which led brand you get some are bullcrap and some are legit you just have to do your research