Anyone who has an indoor garden knows the importance of led grow lights. Be it growing vegetables, herbs, or flowers, every indoor garden requires it. Transforming for over years now, this light is now available in LED versions which makes it cost-effective as well. There are a thousand products present in the market & it comes in different watts according to use & garden size as well. How to choose a grow light that suits you? Keep reading!

What Is A Grow Light?

A grow light is a manmade source of light used for indoor planting and mimics the natural sunlight that encourages plant growth and production. These types of grow lights use electricity.

They are easy to use as you just connect them to a source of power although they are designed with different levels of brightness for different types of plants.

They provide a light spectrum that stimulates photosynthesis the same way natural sunlight does. Usually, you can use these lights in areas with insufficient sunlight or if you need to complement the sunlight.

The good thing about grow lights is that unlike natural sunlight, is that they give your plants the needed light for an extended period hence speeding up plant growth.

How Far Should You Place a Grow Light from Your Plant?

How far from your plant the grow light should depends on the type it is. For instance:

A LED grow light needs to be 6 inches or more depending on the size of your garden.

A fluorescent should be about 12 inches. Make sure it does not result in burning.

HID should be 12 inches or more especially on high wattage.
Usually, grow lights are positioned above your plants the same way the sun hits the plants outdoors to encourage photosynthesis.

Note that you will need to up your grow light as your plants grow tall.

AGLEX M240 LED Grow Light Bar

Features:
AGLEX led grow light comes with upgraded SMD 3030 chips and 4 efficient aluminum bars, ensuring higher efficacy PPE 2.8umol/J and better heat-dissipation, longer lifespan. Max 2.8g yield per wattage with 30% higher average PPFD and 50% greater yield & quality compared with the old plant lights. Only consumes 240w with 448 LEDs, The 240w led grow light M240 will help you achieve maximum quality and quantity. The 240w led grow light is equipped with external driver and dimmer. You can freely control and adjust light intensity outside of grow tent, no need go into. Place them at hand, easy to operate. And driver outside of tent could reduce heat. The 4 bar led grow light, each bar is covered with high-grade glue, waterproof and cleanable, not easy to be full of dusty. This plant grow light is with special dimmer, can be adjusted at accurate brightness. 0–10 levels available.

Kind LED X220 Grow Light

Features:
This KIND LED grow light goes beyond being a full spectrum grow light as it provides you with precision controls to adjust UV and IR. With a fully controllable UV and IR, the grow light lets you use less energy during each stage of growth. The X220 provides you with a faster and healthier option for your plants, providing twice the PPF. The X220 also features up to 50 percent better efficiency than other LED grow lights in the market. Thanks to the innovative design of the X220, you get better light distribution in a low profile form factor. Kind LED grow lights use only about half the electricity as HPS lights and produce much more yield per watt. The kind LED produces less heat, eliminating the need for additional fans, making them run quieter. Lower light temperatures lead to a much more easily maintained ideal grow environment in which your plants would thrive.

How to choose the right LED grow lights

1. Wavelength output
There are many claims that plants cannot grow in LED grow lights. Such claims may be correct. However, that changed with the discovery of blue LEDs. When we talk about light, it is the part of the Electromagnetic radiation spectrum that can be seen by the human eye. For plants, there are specific wavelengths that are important for development, growth, and photosynthesis.
PAR or photosynthetically active radiation has a definition by the range of wavelengths. Prior scientists have determined that they are essential for plants. It corresponds with the light wavelengths that are visible to the human eye.

Within these PAR ranges, specific wavelengths promote plants to grow flowers or vegetation. Some wavelengths may also limit growth in some species of plants. According to scientific experiments, blue and red light wavelengths are especially important for plants. We could not make horticultural lighting with LED lights alone.

When you are purchasing LED grow lights, you have to consider the importance of wavelengths emitted. LEDs are designed to work well for human vision. LEDs are not emphasize the reds and blues which we know plants need.

2. Wattage
The wattage can tell how much energy input one light needs. Watts is a useful measure because the electricity input is related to the total light intensity output, which is measured in lumens. A watt is a unit of power, noting the rate of electricity used.

The output of an LED light is not a function of Watt input. The LED lights are determined by the quality of its design and the quality of its, such as heat sink, the driver, the LED chip used, optics used, and chip density.

LED lights can become less efficient at the time when wattage increases. The additional wattage is caused by increased temperatures in the electronic circuit board. This will cause a decrease in LED efficiency. An LED light driven at 3 Watts emits about three times less than the same light LED driven at 1 Watt.

3. Lumens, PAR, and Lux
Professionals growers, hobby growers, and light manufacturers use different terms to describe grow lights. It would be tricky to compare many different light systems.

What we can use for terms are what are commonly used in lighting and their significance for plants. Lumens are a unit of measure that gives an account in words the total quantity of light from the spectrum that is emitted from a source of light. What matters most is to know how much light will reach your indoor plants.

The key is the way plants absorb and use light. This key is why we have to measure the light output from grow lights. Illuminance is the measure of the quantity of light that reaches out to any surface. Illuminance is defined as lux or lumens per meter squared. Lux is not recommended for growing plants.

PAR is the measurement that provides us the most helpful information for comparing these grow lights. The units of measurement for PAR is µmol m-2s-1. If an LED grow light describe output in terms of lumens, it is useful for choosing a grow light.

High-quality LED grow lights will give you information about the distribution of the light wavelengths emitted by the light. Other information provided, including the size of the area intended to be illuminated, and information about a measure of energy available for photosynthesis at the plant level.
Spectroradiometer is an accurate measurement to see a graph of the wavelengths emitted by LED grow lights. However, they are very expensive instruments that are used only by light manufacturers who lack plant biologists.

4. Light intensity
While measuring PAR, lux, and lumens using a light meter, try different distances from many light sources. You will discover that the farther you move away from the light source, the light intensity decreases. This relationship between distance and light intensity or light output is a physical law or inverse square law. This law behaves the same to every grow light.
If a brand boasts about a grow light system with a large footprint, the light's output must be far more significant with the LED grow lights positioned high above the plants to spread light throughout that footprint. A high-quality LED grow lights will tell how close plants can be grown to their light source. A well-designed LED grow lights operate cool enough that leaf tissue can touch the LED grow lights without harm. This matter means these lights can be kept closer to plants where light output is at the highest.

5. Chip quality
A high-quality diode manufacturing is rather expensive. Each diode must be produced according to some accurate specifications to maintain its integrity and to emit the correct wavelengths.

Many reputable manufacturers use advanced technological processes to make sure the diodes they produce are highly durable and emit the correct light wavelengths. There are also cheaply produced LEDs that focus on attracting low-budget shoppers who do not care about LED's quality. Those cheap LEDs may not or may emit the required wavelengths that indoor plants require.

Their emitted light intensity can change in wavelength or decline within months and weeks after use starts, and those diodes heat. The quantity of light emitted (measured in PAR photon irradiance or lumens) decreases after continuous use. Incandescent light bulb output decreases much more rapidly than LEDs.

High-quality LED luminaires can retain 70% of their initial output for more than 50,000 hours, depending on many factors.

Conclusion

If for no other reason, you should choose to use LED grow lights because they are incredibly popular. If current trends continue, products that use LEDs will become increasingly desirable and available. Along the way, manufacturers are sure to continue improving their technologies to boost the effectiveness of their products. If you wish to reap the rewards of being up-to-date with the latest plant-growing strategies, getting comfortable with using an LED grow light is a great way to begin.