Protect Your LED Grow Light and your Plants with a Power Stabilizer

Buying a LED grow light is a capital investment for your indoor growing hobby or business. The investment offsets other capital expenditures by eliminating the need for ballasts, reflectors, heat venting systems and airconditioning in addition to lowering operational costs by dramatically decreasing the electricity consumption of your grow room.

To protect your investment you should connect your LED grow light to a power stabilizer. The power stabilizer will regulate the voltage coming from your power box and eliminate various power fluctuations which can damage devices. If too many high wattage devices are connected to the same circuit there can be voltage fluctuations which damage power drivers inside the LED lights which power the diodes. This is especially true for growers who use solar energy to power their grow rooms since these systems tend to have power spikes and surges.

A power stabilizer can be purchased online for $20-50. It is a great investment to protect your lights and plants, to ensure there is no down time during critical stages of growth.

Lumens, Watts, Power Draw, PAR, Grow Area Coverage

Many growers ask us about the Lumen output of our full spectrum LED grow lights. Lumens is a measure of how bright a light will appear to the human eye, not how well a light will grow plants. Trying to rate a LED grow light by its Lumen output will not accurately describe the growing ability of the LED grow light. LED grow lights target specific wavelengths of the light spectrum needed for plant photosynthesis. Since the human eye is most sensitive to colors plants don’t need such as green, and least sensitive to colors plants prefer, Lumens can’t be used to accurately compare the plant growing capability of LED grow lights.

Wavelengths of Light necessary for plant growth

Here is an example that brings this idea to light. In movie production many scenes are filmed with a “green screen” background which later is filled in with whatever landscape is needed. The reason the screen is green is because this is the color most easily seen by the human eye. On the other hand, green plants reflect the green wavelength of the visible spectrum of light. G8LED lights sold by Dorm Grow LED do not have any green wavelength diodes as these are not the optimal wavelengths needed for photosynthesis of plants.

What is the best way to measure the strength and effectiveness of LED grow lights? The strength or intensity of the light can be roughly measured by the total power draw of the LED grow light. The higher the power draw, the more intense the light will be. Another measure is the photosynthetic action radiation (PAR) output of a grow light which measures the effectiveness of a grow light for photosynthesis or growth. PAR is measured in micro mole units or uMol which is also known as the photon flux density of light per meter squared per second. Effective PAR ratings should be above 600uMol to be highly effective in photosynthesis or the growth of the plant. G8LED grow lights have PAR ratings of 1200-3600 uMol which means they are very effective in growing plants! If photon flux density of light per meter squared per second is too confusing for you, we have simplified the specification and provided the recommended grow area coverage for each LED grow light. For example, the G8-240 will provide 6 +square feet of coverage, the G8-450 will provide 12+ square feet, the G8-600 will provide 18+ square feet and the G8-900 will provide 24+ square feet. If you have any questions regarding Dorm Grow LED’s line of full spectrum LED grow lights by G8LED please email us at info@dormgrow.com

Most of our clients ask us can we grow tomatoes indoor with LED grow lights?  The answer is yes.  This video is a time lapse of almost 3 months of indoor growing with our very own 450 watt G8 LED grow light.  The tomatoes came out perfect and they were very juicy.

What is the Optimal Diode Wavelength ratio for indoor hydroponic LED grow lights? It really depends on what you are trying to achieve with a given LED light. The optimal ratio will be different for a LED only for vegetative growth from a LED for flowering from a LED for both vegetative growth AND flowering. So how did G8LED come up with the Optimal 8-Band ratio? They did so by going through several iterations and continually testing of the various LED grow lights. G8LED not only formulated a weighted average ratio to match the photosynthetic action radiation (PAR) chart that graphically shows plants requirements for photosynthesis, but they have tested and refined this ratio to find an optimal balance for an All-In-One grow light that works for both Vegetative Growth AND flowering, eliminating the need for growers to buy 2 separate lights, unless of course, they want to. G8LED also has a secondary formulation for a BLOOM specific light.

Some LED companies try to sell their customers on “bigger is better” and offer 11-band, 15-band, 16-band lights. These lights with too many bands will not perform as well as a light that has an Optimal ratio. Having too many wavelengths of light is counterproductive and will negatively affect the performance of a LED grow light for indoor growing. The whole point of using LEDs is to grow efficiently and target only those wavelengths that the plant will use. For example, green light is reflected off plants and is not an important wavelength of light to be included in a grow light. IR is good for stem strength and growth, but is not necessary for flowering. If your light has too many band of light, it will perform worse than a light that has an optimal ratio. So what is the optimal ratio? LED grow lights should have at least 6 necessary wavelengths for peak performance. Anything more than 8 or 9 wavelengths is inefficient and you have wasted diodes in the light.

Dorm Grow does not kid around.  We hope to make every non believer into believer and move over from HID systems to LED lights.  This video is showcasing our G8 450 watt ultra LED grow light for hydroponic indoor growing.

Keeping the proper distance between your LED grow lights and your plants is important to robust photosynthesis and growth.  Your LED grow light provides the wavelengths of light your plants need for growth and flowering. G8LED grow lights are formulated to the photosynthetic activation radiation (PAR) wavelengths necessary for plant growth.  Plants will reach for the much coveted light source just like they grow towards the sun in outdoor conditions.  The general rule of thumb is to increase the distance between the top of the plants’ canopy and the light source as the light becomes more intense. This means that hydroponic LED grow lights of different power ratings will perform best at different distances. A smaller, less intense light like the G8-120 LED Grow Light should be hung 18-24 inches from the top of the canopy. The G8-240 should be hung at 24-30 inches. Larger lights like the G8-450 should be hung at 30-36 inches from the top of the canopy. More intense lights such as the G8-600 and G8-900 LED Grow Lights should be hung 36-42 inches from the top of the canopy of your plants. Maintain these distances as your plants grow in the vegetative stage. Once you start to flower you do not have to keep moving the lights up to avoid stretching.

G8240 Light hanging 20 inches above tomato plants

Since LED grow lights emit 90% less heat than traditional HID lighting such as high pressure sodium or metal halide bulbs, your plants will not dry out or burn if you happen to place your LED grow light to close to your plants. However, your plants’ growth will be stunted if the light is hanging too low. Within a week you will notice that your plants are not experiencing robust growth and the leaves may become discolored. If you do experience this result, adjust by increasing the distance between your light and the plants. Remember, the stronger the light, the further away you should hang it from your plants. Follow the recommended hanging distances and your plants will thrive in your grow room.