Lighting is a crucial factor when it comes to growing plants. Keeping your plants alive can be a challenging task, but growing them indoors is more challenging. Some houses aren't ideal for growing plants just because they are dark. This is where the LED grow lights come in.

There are a lot of benefits that come with these grow lights; energy-efficient, eco-friendly, and produce full-spectrum light. They are considered to be one of the best indoor lights on the market, especially if you find the right one for your plants.

LED grow lights are quite different from the standard LED bulbs, for example, the home light fixtures. They are very effective in mimicking the light from the sun to give your plants the light that they need to grow.

How to Use a Grow Light

To use LED grow light, you need to follow simple instructions that help your plant absorb the right light intensity.
Following the following tips, you can use the grow light correctly. Firstly, the grow light should be on from 8 to 16 hours, depending on the plants' conditions to thrive effectively. In most cases, LED grow lights need to be on throughout the day; hence using energy efficiently is recommendable.

Secondly, always position your LED light lamp above the plant. That way, the plants will grow leaning towards the light just like natural sun lighting. It is also vital to ensure shades-loving plants or young plants get a share of light with lower intensity. In contrast, plants with broad leaves that require much light and mature ones should be placed to receive sufficient light.

How Many Areas Do You Want to Cover

Light size
The grow light that you choose should depend on the area you want to cover. A small 100 watt light may cover less than 4 sq ft, while a large 400 watt light can cover about 12 sq ft. Some growers recommend purchasing a larger light because it is cheaper (watt for watt) and they can always back the light off from the plants if the light radiation is too intense. However, this will also reduce the PAR that reaches your plant so may not be ideal. Dimmable LED grow lights may be advantageous since the intensities can be dialed down. But the best light to buy is the fixture that covers the exact space you need it to cover. Assume about 32 watts per square foot of grow space. These are actual watts that are drawn at the wall and not LED wattage.

Beam Angle
A larger light will cover a larger area with more even and intense coverage than a smaller light that spreads the light over a greater distance. For smaller grows, purchase several lower powered fixtures instead of fewer high powered fixtures for the evenest coverage on your plants.

In addition to the size of the LED grow light, the beam (or lens) angle matters too. A small angle (30 degrees) decreases the coverage area but delivers more PAR to your plants. A large angle (65 degrees) expands the overall light footprint but reduces the light density delivered to the plants. Apache Tech, for example, offers customizable angles on their LEDs - - either 14 or 50 degrees or a blend of both. You might consider larger angle lenses if the light is hung close to the plants. Wider beam angles can assist in canopy penetration since the beams are shooting sideways through the canopy.

RayonLED GLMF-640W FOLDABLE LED Grow Light

Features:
This Rayon LED grow light can pump out an unrivaled 640 watts of the highly efficient LED light. RayonLED employs today's finest Samsung LM301 White LED Diodes with the addition of 660nm to produce a spectrum of light that growers have long sought after. This silent and solid LED grow light is the latest product. Backed by their impressive expertise in LED technology, this medical-grade unit has everything to appeal to both hobby, greenhouse, and commercial growers. Imagine never having to guess if you have enough light, this powerful fixture will absolutely dominate a 5x5 tent in flower. The GLMH-660 is designed to replace and surpass the results from a 1000W HID fixture. From the spectrum to the certifications, it has been thoughtfully crafted to compete with the top grow lights on the market.

Active Grow 640W LoPro Max Horticultural Luminaire LED Grow Light

Features:
This Active Grow light is a lightweight and ultra-thin LED fixture designed to replace HPS lights in vertical racking or sea of green applications. The LoPro Max features Philips chipsets for maximum light output and proprietary optics that create uniform light coverage and deep canopy penetration for high DLI requirement plants. The luminaires are IP65 rated for tough CEA environments, are 0–10V dimmable, and deliver a long lifetime of outstanding and consistent performance. Fixtures are easy to install, adjust and maintain due to their compact form factor and light weight. No additional driver installation is required. And no bulky, top-mounted drivers allow fixtures to fit into any setup including vertical racking systems with minimal clearance.

Consideration For Selecting LED Grow Lights

Ease of use
Indoor gardening can be challenging enough, without having to contend with complicated equipment.

For your own sake, choose an LED grow light that's easy to position and use. It should be very straightforward to switch between different wavelengths and levels of light intensity.
The lifetime of an LED light is roughly 40 times that of an incandescent bulb. LED lights have a life expectancy between 35,000 and 50,000 hours.

Wattage
Wattage is one of the primary concerns when selecting an LED grow light. Plants need plenty of light to grow, but too much light can cause issues with nutrient deficiency, and result in browning or yellowing leaves.

The amount of watts you need from a grow light depends on the type of plant you're growing, and the area you need the light to cover.

High-light flowering plants (like tomatoes) may need up to 32 watts of light per square foot of growing area, whereas low-light plants (like salad leaves or herbs) need more like 10 to 20 watts per square foot of growing area.

If you're not sure about the size of your growing area, get out that measuring tape!

Type of plant
Think about the types of plants you'll grow, and their light requirements. Some require full sun, whereas others may need lower light conditions.

If you're likely to raise a range of plants at different times, with different light requirements, dimmable LED grow lights are a good option, so you can turn down the juice when you're growing plants that need less light.

Blue spectrum light is important for strong plant growth, especially in non-flowering plants (or plants that aren't yet in their flowering phase). Red spectrum light can help to encourage flowering.

Some LED grow lights have separate "veg" and "bloom" settings to support plants in both the vegetative part and the flowering part of their growth cycle.

Full-spectrum lights
Until relatively recently, LED grow lights had limited spectrums, usually offering red, blue, and white light.
Nowadays, you can find full-spectrum LED lights, which provide all the colors in the light spectrum.

Since full spectrum lights are the most similar to natural sunlight, they can support plants throughout the full growth cycle, from seed right through to fruiting, flowering, or producing vegetables.

Semiconductor chip
The semiconductor chip is the core of your LED grow light and is what converts electricity into light.

Lights with a good quality semiconductor chip are likely to be long-lasting.

The chip itself has a wattage - we recommend purchasing LED grow lights with a semiconductor chip of at least three watts in order to provide an adequate amount of light.

Conclusion

The LED grow light market is taking off! At first, many insufficient LED grow lights were sold to consumers. These days, we have many great LEDs that grow better than HPS and MH systems. As time goes on, the market will drive the 'bad' LED grow lights out and favor the LEDs that perform well. Also, LED technology will continue to improve and costs will drop, passing the savings on to the consumer. Right now, start-up costs for growing using LEDs can be high, but the investment of a quality light should last you at least 10 years!

With all of the above points in mind, you are on your way to choosing the very best LED grow light for your money and crop.