Do LED grow lights use less power?

LED lights for home use have become very popular and many people are considering them for growing plants, especially for starting seedlings. It sounds like a great idea. LED lights use very little electricity so they save money

Do LED Grow Lights Use Less Electricity?
Short answer: Compared to HID grow lights, the short answer is YES, they do. However, the long answer is a little more complicated than that. Read on to find out why LED grow lights use less electricity than HID’s.
LED vs HID vs Fluorescent grow light

The main comparison to be made here is really between LEDs and High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting. Fluorescent lighting uses much less electricity than both LED and HID grow lights. However, this comes at the expense of yield and quality, so we won’t include them in this comparison.
How to measure a grow lights efficiency

The most obvious way to measure the efficiency of a lighting system is by simply calculating the quantity of visible light produced (lumens) against the power (in watts) entering the actual light-producing part of the system (bulbs or diodes).

By this raw measure of efficiency, HIDS are more efficient than LEDs. HIDs produce an average of 120 lumens/watt, and the High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) type of HID bulb can be even more efficient than this. A decent LED grow light will produce around 100 lumens/watt.

However, there are other factors that affect the cost of electricity to growers:
What happens immediately before electricity can enter the lamps in a system.
What happens to light immediately after it is emitted by the lamps.
Cooling

LED grow lights are powerful and can get great yields when used correctly.
The recommended height of LED grow light from the top of the plants differs considerably from model to model and from brand to brand. The optimal distance from plants is influenced by many factors, including the way the lenses reflect light downwards at your plants (angle), and the individual size of each LED bulb!
Generally, You should LEDs at least 18″ above the tops of plants. Ultimately the best you can do is to contact the manufacturer and ask about their recommendation of the distance of LED grow lights from the tops of plants.
1) LEDs direct far less infrared radiation at your plants than HID lighting.
HPS/MH operate at extremely high temperatures – 30000C/54000F.  Much of that heat gets turned into infrared radiation.  Infrared is a type of radiation that causes molecules to vibrate and heat up when it hits them. This infrared gets directed down on your plants just like the visible light radiation does.   Experienced HPS/MH growers known this, that’s why they wouldn’t think of putting their lights too close to their plants – they would fry in a very short period of time.

In contrast, LEDs operate at far lower temperatures (typically less than 800C/1760F).  Because of this, they direct far, far less infrared radiation towards your plants.

2) LEDs are more efficient than HPS/MH/HID/LEC/CMH grow lights so they require less watts to produce the same amount of light.  As we said earlier, less watts means less total heat going into your grow space.

3) The light produced by LED grow lights is more efficiently used by plants, so they need less of it.  With this combined double efficiency of LEDs producing more light per watt and more light getting photosynthesized, it is typical for people to replace 1000w HPS grow lights with a +-600w LED grow light.  That’s translates to 40% less heat in your grow space.

Growing Tips

Lighting Time:

Vegetative Stage: 12-14 hrs on

Flowering Stage: 9-12 hrs on

Fruiting Stage: 7- 8 hrs on

Height above Plants:
During different stages of plants’ life cycle, they need a different amount of light. You can control the intensity by changing the height of LEDs above plants.

Seeding: 24 inches

Germination: 24 to 30 inches

Vegetative Stage: 18 to 24 inches

Flowering: 12 to 18 inches

Although LEDs run cool, some LED grow lights emit an intense amount of light that is great for yields but can burn the plants if kept too close.


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