HID grow lights are the mainstream option for indoor growing, because they provide good results. But, there are other options to look into that are much more energy efficient, and still give out the appropriate light to grow beautiful plants. In this article we’ll be going into LED, fluorescent, and incandescent grow lights.
LED Grow Lights
LED grow lights are the newest in the market. They are advertised as the most effective, because no light is wasted. The plants will use every bit of light produced, among different light spectra, for their photosynthetic process. They have the added advantage of less energy consumption and the longest life-span (up to 100,000 hours) of all lighting systems. Although their efficiency is advertised as the best, this is still a new technology, and some tests have proved that when compared to fluorescent, the latter will grow more natural and healthy looking plants.
The aforementioned test was done in 2007, so in today’s market you can find much better products. Although, if you choose to go this route, you should be willing to experiment and tweak your settings to get the optimum results. Because this is the newer option, there isn’t much information in books or sources other than the Internet.
Fluorescent Grow Lights
When looking into fluorescent grow lights, it’s important to make the distinction between the regular long bulbs you most often see in an office, and those made to grow plants. The former are called T12, and T5 fluorescent grow lights are the ones you want. They are a little on the expensive side, but you can obtain great results from them due to the brightness level they have (75 to 90 lumen per watt) and they are energy efficient. They are a popular choice for growing seedlings and low-light plants.
Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) are smaller but are recommended for tiny spaces, and their performance is the same as T5s. You can expect to find more information about this type of bulb, because it has been around for a while now.
Incandescent Grow Lights
This is the inexpensive alternative, but with the disadvantage of providing very poor quality lighting for a plant. At best, they can provide supplemental lighting, because their brightness level is very low. Out of the three, this option is the least energy efficient by far, and they don’t last as long either.
If you’re a beginner indoor grower, we recommend you choose the fluorescent bulbs, because these are more standardized than LED grow lights. Meaning that information is more available, you can even find that some seed packs will have instructions on how to grow them indoors by using fluorescent. LED grow lights have a lot of potential, but there are many products that just don’t deliver, so it’s a matter of browsing and testing, which can pay off quite well if you’re willing to go through this process or just research about people who post their findings online.