How To Choose LED Grow Lights For Indoor Growing

When it comes to growing cannabis seeds, there are two environments that you can choose between; indoor and outdoor. While seeds grown indoors might require a more specialized setup and far more labor in order to get the plants to reach harvest, the yields that can be achieved through the use of indoor-grown cannabis seeds are generally far more generous than their outdoor grown and reared cousins.

Growing cannabis seeds indoors can be something of an art and requires specialized conditions and care in order to achieve the required yields to make the time and effort worthwhile. A number of different factors need to be considered, including the specific strain of seeds that you choose and the conditions in which they are germinated and grown. In addition, the environment needs to be carefully controlled in order to ensure that the seeds are grown in the very best possible environment—and, as part of this, you should always consider the type of LED grow light that you choose for your seeds.

Why Choosing The Right LED Is So Important

Choosing the right LED light is vital for anyone looking to grow their cannabis seeds on a production scale. Using the wrong LED grow light for your indoor cannabis growing system will likely result in a far lesser yield and potentially a longer maturing time as well, which will also have an impact on the yield that you can achieve within a certain time frame.

Growing cannabis through the use of LED lighting is a great choice for many growers. Indeed, it is safe to say that the implementation of indoor, LED-powered cannabis production systems has had a huge impact on the ways in which we grow and harvest cannabis.

LED light systems offer many benefits to growing crops using older lighting solutions. These benefits include a faster and more consistent rate of growth for individual crops; full control over the wavelength of the lighting, which allows for a specific strain to be given the ideal growing conditions; increased energy efficiency of the system as a whole; compact solutions; and highly durable lights that will continue to give great outputs for longer than their older generic cousins.

Why The Right LEDs Are Hard To Decide On

Many people think that choosing the right LED for their cannabis growing facility will be easy. In reality, though, choosing the right LED is a decision that should not be underestimated; making the right choice is notoriously difficult to accomplish.

The biggest complication is primarily due to the fact that there are a huge number of different products on the market—this can make a decision incredibly hard to make for many people.

In addition to this large selection that people can choose between, another complication can also be the difficult and often confusing word choice that the manufacturers will often use. By using complicated and convoluted wording, many buyers will not actually understand the specs of the LED lights that they are buying.

How To Choose The Right LED Growing Lights

In order to choose the perfect LED grow lights, there are a number of different things that you need to consider. The right lighting solutions will usually depend on your setup and budget, however, there are some factors that should always be weighed up before making a decision on the right LED lights for your needs.

The Quality of the Products

The first thing that you should always consider is that of the quality of the materials used in making the lights. LED lighting for cannabis growing facilities should always be made from the highest quality materials possible in order to ensure an even and consistent spread of light throughout your growing space; without consistent lighting, your cannabis plants will also grow inconsistently.

The best made LED lamps should be easily able to last for ten years or more, if well cared for. This clearly offsets the cost of paying more upfront for better-made lighting solutions. In addition to this, the best-made lights will also be far safer than those that are made from more questionable materials, improving your safety and the safety of your crops as well.

When deciding on the quality of the LED lights that you have chosen, you might want to also consider the reputation of the brand that you are buying from. While a brand name isn’t everything, if a brand is well spoken of then you can expect the best possible quality lights when buying their products over those lights offered by new or unknown brands. As part of this, you should also always take the time to check customer reviews of the light, as these are often the most reliable source of information for a product.

Electricity Output

When deciding on the right LED lighting for your setup, another factor that you will definitely want to consider is that of the energy output of the system. An LED light that won’t be able to provide enough energy will lead to your plants growing incredibly poorly.

In addition to this, poor LED lights that will eat through a vast amount of electricity for only a small offering of light energy will rapidly contribute to rising electricity costs; due to the nature of cannabis growing, you will need to have your cannabis setup lit up for at least 11 hours a day, which can rack up quite the electricity bill if you choose lights that are not really fit for purpose!

Low Heat Output

Lights emit heat as a waste product of the conversion of electrical energy into light energy. This heat, if generated in excess by your LEDs, can pose a great risk to your plants and even to your own health and safety.

In order to maximize growth, you ideally want the LEDs positioned in such a way as to make them as close to the plants themselves as possible. In the event that your LEDs give out a vast amount of heat, however, this will not be possible—in which case, you would need to have the LEDs hanging far higher above the plants in order to prevent damage or even fire from breaking out in your growing room.

By contrast, if you have a highly efficient LED that doesn’t give out much heat, your plants will fare far better. Low heat LEDs can be placed closer to the plant safely, in turn increasing the growth rate of the plant. In addition, they are also far safer and will save you money in the long run as well (due to the increased efficiency).

Warranty

Unfortunately, even the best products will occasionally break or malfunction—and in these cases, having the reassurance from the manufacturer in the form of a warranty can be practically invaluable. Since a good quality LED growing light should easily be able to last for ten years, this is roughly the duration of warranty that you should also look for as well; if the warranty is less than this, ask yourself why—are the manufacturer’s concerned about the product’s ability to meet the expected 10 year lifespan?

Is This Light Right For My Setup?

There are a number of different factors that you should consider in order to ensure that an LED light will be right for growing cannabis plants, however, many people neglect to consider their own specific setup. Different growers will have different amounts of room height, space, and the like; this means that you always need to carefully consider whether the LED that you have found will be the right choice for your property.

When deciding on whether the LED is right, you should always consider the height of the unit and the height that the crops themselves will achieve as well. Cannabis plants can vary in height between approximately half a meter and two meters, so the importance of checking the maximum potential height of your plants cannot be stressed highly enough; you don’t want the plants to grow taller than the light sources, after all!

If you are a little unsure of which type of plants to consider, or if you feel that you might want to adjust the height of the LEDs as your cannabis plants grow, then you should think about getting flexible lighting that can be adjusted over time.

In Summary

Finding the right LED lights for your needs doesn’t need to be difficult, but it is important to remember that quality is the number one most important factor for your LEDs if you are to ensure the safety of both your cannabis and yourself.

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