LED grow lights run much cooler than the competition and are more energy-efficient, but they’re also more costly than conventional grow lights. Are they really well worth the extra money?

LED grow lights run cooler than conventional grow lights, increasing energy efficiency, but they’re more costly. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are the most well liked thing in interior grow

lights for plants.

Well, maybe ‘coolest’ may be a better term than ‘hottest.’ one among the most selling features of LED grow lights is that they run much cooler than the competition and are, therefore, more

energy-efficient. But LED grow lights also are more costly than conventional grow lights, therefore the question that you simply got to ask yourself before purchasing them is ‘Are they really

well worth the extra money?

Before one can make a choice on whether or to not install LED grow lights (or the other grow lights, for that matter) it helps to know a touch about what they’re and the way they affect plant

growth.

The scientific explanation of how LEDs work are often a touch headache-inducing sometimes . What works on behalf of me is to consider one LED fixture as a structure that contains many small

semiconductors (diodes) that restrict the flow of electrons whenever the fixture is plugged in and turned on. This restriction causes the diodes to emit many light, that plants can then absorb

and use to convert water and CO2 into sugars.

Other sorts of grow lights also convert electron energy into usable plant light, but they often aren’t as efficient as LEDs and make an excessive amount of heat. Granted, heat isn’t an entire

waste because plants need fairly warm temperatures to grow well, but poor-quality grow lights typically radiate much more heat than plants could ever use.

The other intriguing aspect of the many LED grow lights is that designers are ready to ‘tune’ them in order that they emit the simplest spectrum of sunshine for plants. Blue and red light are

the 2 colours that the majority plants prefer for optimum growth, numerous of today’s LED grow lights have strong peaks in both of those colours.

In fact, some LEDs emit only red light or blue light, which makes the plants look pretty weird (and even a touch creepy). In one particular greenhouse I saw row upon row of tomato plants under

a ‘sea’ of red grow lights, which gave the leaves an eerie crimson glow. I felt a touch like I had landed on Mars! Fortunately most of the LEDs for home use are white, because of the

manufacturers adding other colours to the spectral mix.

What do you have to do?

LED grow lights are great because they’re energy-efficient, durable, and have ‘tuned’ light spectrums to best meet the plant’s needs. However, there are still many excellent fluorescent grow

lights that are less expensive and still contribute to wonderful plant growth.

The common skinny T5 fluorescent grow light tubes — T means tube and ‘5’ refers to the tube being 5/16 inches in diameter — aren’t quite as energy-efficient as LEDs, but they still perform

exceptionally well. Spiral fluorescent grow lights are like T5 tubes with reference to light quality and quantity, but they’re more compact and may be easily screwed into regular lamp

receptacles.

Now, if you continue to have a couple of incandescent bulbs kicking round the garage don’t be tempted to use them as grow lights. they’ll illuminate an area very well and supply a pleasant

warm glow, but since they emit only alittle portion of usable photosynthetic light they supply little energy for plant growth.

Perhaps you’re thinking of skipping lights all at once . in fact that’s an option, but just remember that light, instead of fertilizer, is fertilizer . And with our very short winter days —

because of our northerly latitude — many of our houseplants are just about on a starvation diet immediately . Some plants can tough out the dark days of winter, but they often look sparse and

rather sad for months.

So back to the question. Is it worth paying a premium for LED grow lights over conventional grow lights? Weighing all of the factors, i might say yes, LED lights grow lights are well worth the

cost. But i do know that a lot of people are quite content with their fluorescents, and that’s just fine. However, for others, the choice on whether or to not install LEDs could be all about

their coolness factor — both figuratively and literally.