LED Technology - LED Grow Lights for Indoor Plants
No Ballasts – No Dry Plants – No Heat Venting
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) provide numerous advantages in efficiency and control over a traditional light source such as incandescent, florescent, high pressure sodium, metal halide and high intensity discharge lights. One of the major advantages is not just in the brightness of the LED lights or their low power consumption, but the actual light spectrum can now be controlled in a constructive way such that the photosynthesis of plants can be optimized by providing the exact spectra needed for plant photosynthesis. This is one of the main reasons that LED Grow lights are becoming the preferred technology that professional growers are turning to.
No Expensive Accessories
Ballasts, reflectors, fans, heat removal systems…they are expensive and add up very quickly. LED grow lights eliminate the need for these extra accessories. Plug in and start photosynthesis immediately.
Color and Photosynthesis in the Natural World
Plants use light to convert starch into energy by the process of photosynthesis. Although a fairly complex chemical process, it is not difficult to see that plants do better in some types of light and not so well in others. This is because during the phases of a plant’s growth and reproductive cycles, the plant requires a different combination of light wavelengths at different periods of the growth and reproductive cycle to develop properly. In nature this variety of wavelengths are present in the sun and surprisingly at different times of the year we get different colored sunlight. You may have noticed that in the summer that the sun looks more orange and the sky has a yellow hue compared to winter when everything looks bluer and colder. This is because our seasons are determined by the fact that our orbit around the sun is elliptical and not circular. This means we are further away from the sun at certain times of the year, dimming its intensity. In the summer the sun is higher in the sky so the sunset takes longer. It is the opposite in the winter, so the red lights associated with the sunset takes up less time and the blue sky dominates the percentage of daylight.
Low Heat
LED lights emit a small amount of the energy they consume as heat and are safely warm-to-the-touch while operating. This means no more scorched leaves, no more excessive dehydration and better temperature control right above your plants.
Indoor Photosynthesis
When a seedling emerges, the dominant daylight wavelength (blue in the winter & spring, red in the summer and autumn) will determine how the plant will grow. A plant born in the spring will want to grow as tall or wide as possible to compete in the wild and uses the blue wavelengths to achieve optimal growth through photosynthetic energy production in its early life. When the wavelengths in the sky start to change to the red spectrum as summer progresses and autumn arrives, plants utilize the red frequencies of light to power the flowering process which has to take place before winter starts. The plant cycle is that of growing fast during high intensity blue wavelength lights (the blue/white type of light of a Metal Halide (MH) bulb) and flowering heavily during the redder wavelengths (the type of light of a High Pressure Sodium (HPS) bulb). It is the ability of LED growing lights to emit specific wavelengths of light which include both blue and red light that make them so appealing to plant growers. You do not have to switch between MH and HPS anymore. The LED grow light is configured for both vegetative growth and flowering.
LED Energy Savings
Brightness and Energy Wasted as Heat
The sun has massive luminosity at all wavelengths and most of the energy is not used by a typical plant outdoors. Although indoor growers cannot recreate the brightness of the sun, they can emulate its spectral behavior to encourage successful vegetative and flowering phases. Indoor growers using conventional lighting systems often grow in stages with different bulbs. The MH/HPS systems are expensive to run as a lot of heat energy is wasted and light is emitted at wavelengths that the plants cannot use to photosynthesize, so efficiency is below 30% with conventional grow lights.
Most Efficient Photosynthesis
LEDs Are the Green Solution!
LED grow light systems are eco-friendly and work great with soil, aeroponic and hydroponic systems because there is no heat problem and no associated increase in humidity to have to deal with. You will not need dehumidifiers to remove the moisture from the air created by the intense heat of MH/HPS lights. LED grow lights will reduce your energy demand and decrease the carbon footprint of your operation. Flourescent tubes also have a low energy demand buth they have a short life, are not very bright in the spectra needed and are not very eco-friendly to dispose of. Any professional or hobbyist looking to install an indoor growing system should choose a LED system to get the best value and performance for their money. LED grow lights beat other grow light solutions in price, quality, safety, performance and convenience and they produce great indoor plants! With an average lifespan of 50,000 hours, LED Grow Lights continue to pay for themselves over time!
