ECO Farm ECOF LM301B 600W 8 Bars LED Grow Light VS PhotonTek X 600W Pro LED

 Growing plants indoors can be a great hobby for anyone who doesn’t have a yard or who wants to grow plants all year round. Experienced growers appreciate the amount of control they have over the vitality of the plants simply because an indoor grow setup is isolated from many contaminating factors, like a large number of insect species, uncontrollable temperature changes, and severe storms that could damage the plants.

However, for plants to grow and thrive indoors, they need enough light to carry out the process of photosynthesis. In addition, the amount of natural light that a plant receives throughout the day plays a large part in its life cycle. By increasing or decreasing the amount of light, you can mimic the natural change in seasons and trigger flowering at an increased rate. Or, you can allow the plant to continue to grow, extending the growing season to get a greater yield from a larger plant when it does flower.

The best grow lights offer balanced lighting that is relatively easy to set and control. Many products even have built-in timers that automatically turn the light off after a specified period of time, ensuring the plants don’t get more light than intended. For more information about grow lights, take a look at our tips for picking the best ones for your needs, and check out our picks of the top products.

Who’ll Benefit from Owning a LED Grow Lights?

The individuals that will benefit from owning LED grow lights are those that absolutely want to reduce their electricity bill.

If you’ve grown plants with HID lighting, then you know how big of a surprise the electricity bill can be during the summer months.

HID lighting increases the heat in your room, so not only are you using an abundant amount of energy with the lights alone, but you also create the need to cool your room down with additional electricity through the use of an AC unit.

This pairing puts stress on your electricity consumption, which eventually results in an eye-popping electricity bill.

Growers who are looking to become cost-effective will benefit from using LED grow lights because they emit far less heat, which decreases the strain on your AC unit.

Another type of grower that will benefit from owning LED grow lights is one that is compelled to reduce his or her carbon footprint.

Each HID light provides a massive amount of lighting, but at an environmental cost. The more electricity that’s consumed is directly the result of power plants producing this energy.

Growers who cultivate plants in small places are also a large contingent who’ll benefit from using LED grow lights. Smaller rooms require less intense lighting, and they become heat traps when a HID system is placed within.

There’s no reason why you’d place a 1,000-watt HPS light inside of a 2’x2’ grow tent as this would destroy your crop quickly unless you have an incredibly efficient AC system in place.

Just like growers using small spaces, hobbyist growers that would like to experiment with plants cultivation will benefit from full spectrum LED grow lights because they incur small electricity bills, reduce the need for AC systems, and are far more eco-friendly.

Who Won’t Benefit From LED Grow Lights?

The main individuals that won’t benefit from LED grow lights are commercial producers.

Those who are obligated to provide hundreds or thousands of pounds of plants will normally use traditional lighting (HIDs) or commercial-specific plasma lighting.

Although professional growers use LED grow lights, major producers are used to cultivating plants with metal halide and high-pressure sodium bulbs.

Most commercial operations are fully outfitted with AC systems and environmental controllers that allow the grow room to be completely automated.

This doesn’t mean that their method is efficient since they can drastically reduce their operating costs by incorporating LED grow lights into their operation.

ECO Farm ECOF LM301B 600W 8 Bars LED Grow Light

Features:

The ECO Farm grow light is equipped with SAMSUNG LM301B chip and Osram 660nm to ensure high-efficiency PPE 2.8umol/J, better heat dissipation, and long service life. Compared with old plant lights, the average PPFD is increased by 30%, and The yield and quality are increased by 50%. Abandon the concept of strips, and instead, use more efficient continuous circuit boards to provide unparalleled PPFD uniformity for the canopy. 8 LED growth lights, each rod is covered with high-grade glue, waterproof and easy to clean, not easy to be filled with dust. This plant growth light also uses a special dimmer, which can precisely adjust the brightness. 0–10 levels are optional. This means that you can see clear brightness levels and record while adjusting. No need to worry about differences. At the same time, it also has full-spectrum white light +660nm plant red light. The spectrum applies to the entire stage of indoor planting. Finally, it is a fanless and zero-noise design, which is very quiet. Designed for serious gardening professionals who want to improve business sustainability by reducing energy consumption, while increasing crop performance and yield.

PhotonTek X 600W Pro LED

Features:

PhotonTek LED Grow Lights are manufactured using only the highest grade materials and components. The experts at PhotonTek combine the highest quality full spectrum light with the highest intensity PPFD available through multiple linear designs. The PhotonTek X 600W Pro provides the highest quality light for your plants throughout their growth cycle, making these LEDs the smartest choice for healthy, efficient harvests with a faster return on investment. PhotonTek’s X 600 Watt Pro LED Grow Lights produce surprisingly consistent light spread at close distances to the crop canopy, with a total PPF output of 1620 µmol/s and a photon efficiency (lamp efficiency) of 2.7 µmol/J, so your indoor A plant grow room, grow tent, multi-level system or other indoor growing space will yield incredible results when harvested.

Things to Consider Before Buying Grow Lights

Grow lights are meant to help your plants grow strong and healthy, so it’s important to have a good understanding of what to look for before choosing a product for your setup. Consider the brightness of the light, the light spectrum that each product can produce, and the type of grow light that would be best for the size and configuration of your grow tent.

Brightness
In most circumstances the brightness of a light would be measured in lumens. However, lumens can only be used to measure visible light. Plants are capable of absorbing a wider spectrum of light for photosynthesis, which is known as the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) zone. So, the PPF and PPFD are required to adequately measure the brightness of a grow light.

– PPF is the standard measurement used for determining the amount of light within the PAR zone created by a single light source per second. Grow light manufacturers measure PPF in micromoles per second (μmol/second). In general, grow lights with a high PPF value are considered more effective, especially if the lights can be dimmed to reduce light when necessary.

– PPFD is the preferred measurement when you know the size of the area where the light will be set up. The PPFD indicates the amount of light within the PAR zone that will actually reach the plants or fall within a given surface area each second. Grow light manufacturers will sometimes provide the PPFD, though it’s important to note the size of the tent or room where the PPFD was set — otherwise, the measurement isn’t as useful for determining the actual output. PPFD is typically measured in micromoles per meter squared per second (μmol/m²/s).

Light Spectrum
Natural light from the sun has a spectrum of waves that includes blue light, purple light, red light, indigo light, infrared light, and more. Plants are exposed to the full spectrum when they grow outdoors, but for indoor setups, you will need to consider light spectrum when choosing the best grow lights. Certain colors are more important for your plants’ growth than others, so it’s common to see grow lights that offer full spectrum white lights as well as others that feature a series of colored lights to better control the plant’s various growth stages.

– Blue light is essential for plants to grow from seedlings because it’s the first color on the light spectrum that can be absorbed by plants when they are still in a vegetative state. It’s also necessary throughout the remainder of the plant’s life to help with photosynthesis, leaf expansion, photoperiodic flowering, and leaf curvature towards light.

– Purple light isn’t as important as blue light, but it can improve photosynthetic processes, especially when the plants are young. Adding purple light at later stages doesn’t harm plants, but the effects of this light decline as most plants mature.

– Red light is another key light on the spectrum for healthy plant growth. It can be used to help seedlings sprout and grow, but the effects of red light aren’t really noticeable until the later stages of growth and budding. Both blue and red light are the most important for growing healthy plants.

– White light is the easiest option to go with, especially for beginner growers, because it contains every color on the spectrum. For this reason, white lights are typically referred to as full spectrum lights by manufacturers. White lights encourage growth throughout the entire plant life cycle, but experienced growers may prefer the precise balance and control over plant development that they can achieve with blue, purple, and red spectrum lights.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, LED grow lights still command a high price. These devices are cost-effective in the long run, so it’s essential that you understand that there will be a significant upfront cost when purchasing a new LED grow light.

Similar to the solar industry, the upfront cost scares away many, but the long-term savings pay for the unit and then some in as little as a year of use.