What Are LED Grow Lights?
LED stands for light-emitting diode. A form of solid-state lighting, an LED uses a semiconductor chip, known as an LED die, that turns an electrical current into photons through a process called electroluminescence. An LED may be configured either as a single-die emitter that’s mounted on a circuit board, or an array of dies mounted directly on a circuit board, which is known as a chip-on-board (COB) module. An LED lamp is made up of an LED mounted to a heat sink, along with directional lenses and a power supply.

Today’s commercial grow lights are designed to emit wavelengths of light that produce the natural daylight spectrum, or they can be precisely adjusted to put out ideal wavelengths for the varying needs of growing plants. They feature additional cooling systems to increase their efficiency.
What Are Fluorescent Grow Lights?
Fluorescent lamps convert electrical energy into light by running a current through mercury vapor to produce ultraviolet radiation, which stimulates the coating of phosphor powder on the inside of the lamp to fluoresce, thus producing visible light. The color of the light is determined by the chemical composition of the phosphor.

Fluorescent grow lights come in two forms: compact fluorescent lights (CFL) and fluorescent tubes. CFL greenhouse grow lights differ from regular CFLs in that they come in larger sizes, provide higher wattages, and put out a broad spectrum of light.Fluorescent tube grow lights come in different sizes and varieties, although the T5 diameter high-output (HO) grow lights, which emit about twice as much light as regular fluorescent tubes, are widely considered the best ones to use.Fluorescent grow light fixtures typically have built-in reflectors and ballast, which give them a thin profile.
Benefits Of LED Grow Lights
Energy-efficient lighting is an obvious advantage for hydroponic gardening, and LED grow lights are famous for this. Their solid state technology has been a real revolution in lighting efficiency.
The impressively long lifespan that LED grow lights offer is also due to the fact that they are solid state, rather than having vacuum or gas components that deteriorate over time. Features such as the built-in heat sink, which pulls heat away from the lamp and dissipates it into the air, also help improve brightness and longevity.

Lower running temperatures of powerful led grow light are advantageous in hydroponics for a couple of reasons. The first is that lighting that gives off a lot of heat can easily create unacceptable temperatures in the confined space of a grow room, so you need a cooling system, which runs up your electricity bill. The second reason is that a lower heat output makes it possible to place lights closer to the plants. This is important for indoor growing because the farther away from a light source a plant is, the less energy is available to the plant for photosynthesis.Therefore, the closer the fixtures, the better the light efficiency.
Another advantage of hydroponics led grow lights is that you don’t need a ballast to limit the current, or directional lenses, which send light exactly where it’s needed. Not needing these features saves space and also allows you to avoid the hassle of having to figure out how to assemble your lighting system. Also, you can plug most LED grow lights directly into your regular electrical outlets.

Recent LED technology such as COB modules provide growers with highly customizable lighting to fit different growing purposes, depending on the plants and the stage of growth, as well as white LED grow lights that mimic natural sunlight by putting out a broad, well-balanced spectrum that encourages photosynthesis in plants.