LEDs have brought about a revolution in the area of growing plants by placing the indoor growers on a fair level with the outdoor ones. They have enabled both professional and enthusiast to achieve optimal environmental efficiency with minimal effort.
Grow lights bring sure benefits, but choosing the best LED grow light is equally important. The plethora of options available on the market, confusing statements from manufacturers and misleading product descriptions leaves us in doldrums over the choice of product.
Starting off with the wrong set of lights can be detrimental to your growing efforts, so making an educated purchase is a must. Various factors like your growing purposes, location, and other specifics involved does play a pivotal role in the choice of LED lights. Following is a list of the most important things you must keep in mind while making the purchase:
- Quality Build & Materials: LED lighting are most known for their durability. Built using quality materials, LEDs can easily last for 5-10 years and during this time you don’t have to worry about making any changes to your setup.
- Reputation of your brand: There is a profusion of brands on the market and each one provides slightly different products. This makes the choice all the more difficult. It is better to side with a company well established in this business than going with a newbie in the market.
- Electricity Consumption: LED grow lights will have to operate for at least 8-10 hours each day, which in turn will lead to increased electricity bills. Therefore you should always ensure that power consumption by LED is proportionate with the area in which you are growing the cannabis.
- Minimal Heat Production: Being in close proximity to the plants, LED lights will directly influence the quality of your yield. Having low heat output guarantees that there won’t be any damage.
- Growing Space of Plant: The size of lamp that you’ll need depends on the space availability. The first and the foremost thing you need to do is measure the exact size of your garden. Then you need to find out the lighting area size of the lamps you’re considering in order to determine the exact number you need.
- Full Spectrum LED Lights: As a rule of thumb always make sure that LEDs contain some amount of green or white light (full spectrum light). Never buy an LED lamp that has diode only for red and blue lights. It has been found that plants that grow in the absence of green or white light are very prone to nutrient deficiencies and thus have an adverse effect on the yield.
- Feasibility in use: Not only LED lamps are efficient they are also easy to be installed. Their wavelength and light intensity are easily adjustable. Look for products that are easy to maintain and ready to use straight out of the packaging.
- Warranty: Normally, LED lights last about 10 years. A warranty of less than 10 years is an indicator of poor quality and low durability.
Day by day full spectrum LED lights are becoming popular due to their high durability and efficiency. Although singling out from this diversified variety does seem to be a herculean task but once sorted you can rest assured of a good quality yield. The golden advice in this regard is not to settle for anything cheap but always search for lasting quality products.