What Are the Best LED Grow Lights for Beginners?

 If you are planning to run a full-fledge indoor garden, LED grow lights are the most efficient and cost-effective. Although this latest tech in grow lights has a higher initial investment, it will clearly make up for that when it comes to your electricity bill and it’s lifespan.

LED grow lights are available with full-spectrum (mimic sunlight) color or the vital red-blue colors. These lights can certainly support a large indoor grow house when utilized correctly.

Introduction to Plant Grow Lights

In the simplest of terms, indoor plant lights are artificial sources of light that stimulate plant growth. The best indoor growing lights simulate the sun and give the plant everything it needs for photosynthesis (how plants turn light into energy.)

Indoor plant grow lights provide a similar light spectrum to the sun by varying the colour, intensity (called lumens) and temperature of the light output. Countless studies show different types of plants respond better to different colours and intensities of light, so using indoor grow equipment allows the grower total control over the type of light the plants receive.

Good reasons to use LED grow lights

– Lower operating costs than HID in terms of electricity and lifespan.
– Pretty easy to install, most fixtures basically plugin and play.
– You don’t need additional equipment. e.g. Separate reflectors, ballasts etc.
– Compared to HID, LED is much more efficient, it consumes far less power for the same output.
– LED lights generate much less heat and run cooler than HID lights, requires less cooling.
– LED light does not contain any mercury content which is bad for the environment.
– High-quality LEDs let you have more control color spectra. For example, during vegging, you can turn off the red light and just keep on blue lights which is mainly needed during vegging.
– LED promotes better growth, resin output and produces high yields when used correctly.

The following recommended 3 best led grow lights, I hope it can be helpful to you.

ECO Farm 480W Reflector Series Quantum Board

Features:

The ECO Farm LED grow light is made of Samsung LM301B/LM301H and Osram Oslon SSL 660nm or 660nm + 730nm. High energy efficiency, 2umol/J, create better canopy light penetration, LED grow lights are suitable for indoor plants.

Light formula tailored for fast growth and high-growth buds. Plant spectrum is the first choice, F15 has a darker red spectrum of 660NM, and F16 has a far-red light of 730NM, which is more suitable for the growth of medicinal plants
Fanless-continue to accept consumer suggestions, more robust connectors, switches, radiator upgrades, the radiator height is 15 mm (increase by 5 mm), more cooling. The noise-free design makes your life easier and quieter.
Suitable for all growth stages and increase yield. The waterproof rating is up to IP65, and it can be operated safely in high humidity environments.

HLG 650R Quantum Board

Features:

Each HLG 650 V2 uses 4 custom-designed full-spectrum high-efficiency white light quantum boards and Samsung LM301H and LM351H V2 deep red 660nm LEDs. Can easily replace double-ended 1000 watt HID lamps

The device is dimmable, has a power range of 120 to 630 watts, emits 1770 umol/s, and has an excellent efficacy of 2.81 umol/J.
It has a dark blue spectrum, which is balanced with the hindbrain infarct action spectrum to enhance flowering ability.
Plug and play, it is most suitable for planting rooms and planting tents covering 5x5 (in flowers) to 7x7 (in vegetables).

NextLight Mega Quantum Board Led Grow Light

Features:

This light uses only 650 watts, which is ideal for growers who want to use less electricity and heat to cover a larger area. Mega covers up to 5 feet x 5 feet of flower footprint and 7 feet x 7 feet of vegetable footprint, and each unit is covered by a 5-year full manufacturer’s warranty. It has a lifetime rating of 100,000 hours

NextLight uses high-efficiency Samsung LM561B diodes, rated for 100,000 hours at an ambient temperature of 77°F. NextLight focuses on high-quality diodes and the best drivers on the market. 100–277 VAC auto-sensing Mean Well driver is installed on the back of the device to protect it
There is no cooling fan-the unit is passively cooled by an aluminum frame and housing. In general, there are the least bells and whistles.

Advantages of LED Grow Lights

There are many benefits to using LED Grow lights in your indoor grow room or even in a protected outdoor environment like a greenhouse.

LED grow lights run cooler than MH/HPS HID grow lights, and the bulbs last much longer.

Compared to an HID indoor grow setup that requires a lot of electricity, cooling, and ventilation efforts, LED grow lights can be set up effortlessly in a closet, grow tent, or similar space without renovating it completely.

The beauty of LED grow light technology is that they are as easy as plug & play for most situations. The fans and/or built-in heat sink will keep the grow light at a comfortable operating temperature.

This means that you do not need to spend the money or effort into building a super deluxe indoor grow room in order to grow a healthy cannabis crop. Just buy a grow light, crack some seeds and get growing.

Low Wattage + High Efficiency
As opposed to HPS and MH lights, LED grow lights run at a much lower wattage while producing more PAR light-per-watt for plants to absorb and grow with.

This high efficiency and low power draw opens up the door for alternative energy sources, such as solar-powered grows. For a few hundred bucks, you can buy a solar panel, deep cycle marine batteries, and an inverter to make your own solar-powered indoor grow room. To do it the cheapest way, you can just run the light during the nighttime and move plants outside to grow with the sun during the day.

A big step up from fluorescent lights, LED lights have enough penetration to stack even the inside of cannabis plants dense with fat nuggets. Whether they’re in vegetative or flowering cycle, LED lights can do the whole job well done. The “blurple”, pink, or white glow emanated from these grow lights is strong and bright enough to give you a dizzy feeling. Remember to wear eye protection when operating LED grow lights.

High Yields
Modern LED grow lights of today surpass the earlier models of years ago in the available spectrum, durability, and light strength.

Yields for indoor growers finishing cannabis under full-spectrum LED lighting average ½ gram per watt among growers in the United States. This is considering the true power draw watt, not the rated equivalent advertised.

The ballpark ½ gram per watt figure takes into account that your grow room will follow the proper space guidelines of the grow light and that the plants will be optimized for growth, e.g., soil, water, nutrients, and care.

What to look for when Buying LED Grow Lights?

True / Actual Wattage
Double-check the specs and find the True wattage, not the advertised Theoretical wattage. Calculate your watt requirements based on True wattage.

Full Spectrum or Multi-Colored
Both Full spectrum LED and Colored LED can support plants in all growing stages. However, I recommend getting Full-spectrum LEDs for best results, they’re more expensive but best for all stages of growth. And if it includes infrared and/or ultraviolet, that is even better.

There are 2 options for Full-spectrum LEDs, White LEDs, and Multiple Colored LEDs. Full-spectrum white LEDs are closer natural sunlight, but the yellow and green lights are not used by plants anyways. The colored lights are specially designed to output lights that are they crave the most, and many good quality fixtures include white light in it as well.

There is endless debate on which one is better. Both are great, you can choose either depending on your budget.

Coverage Area
Coverage increases if you move your plant higher but light intensity or the PAR value decreases. If you move your light closer the PAR increase and the coverage decreases.

The coverage listed on most LED lights indicate it can provide sufficient light intensity for flowering & fruiting. However, the PAR value listed by many manufacturers can be misleading, some lists the PAR at the center of the area which is always higher than the rest of the surrounding area. Your best bet is to buy from a quality manufacturer.

Conclusion

You can get really good LED grow lights for not too much more money than their HID plant light equivalents.

Even if the best LED grow light is not necessarily the most expensive, LEDs will cost at least a bit more money than other forms of plant light. Those LED grow lights selling at rock bottom prices are the ones you want to avoid. The bad choice.

Pay a little more for a huge jump in quality, in terms efficiency and light spectrum. If you are not willing to do that, you are not yet ready to switch to LEDs.