Scopex 680W LED Grow Light VS OCL SKWID 1900 Pro LED 680W Grow Light
Grow lights give you the power to garden almost anywhere and in every season. While grow lights are often popular when it’s time to start seeds for your spring garden, you can also use them year-round for herbs, indoor houseplants, and veggies.
As you look for the right grow lights for your needs and space, keep in mind to always look for the greenest lighting options possible. Even slight efficiencies like placing your lights near sunny windows or finding lights with timers can really add up over the years. You can feel good knowing you’re practising green habits like gardening while reducing your carbon footprint overall.
Reasons to Invest in a LED Grow Light?
Most grow lights available now are LEDs, which are super-efficient, generate less heat and last far longer than old-school incandescent or fluorescent lights. Some lights have timers, which is handy if you don’t want to remember to turn them on and off every day. That’s important because plants do need darkness as part of their normal growing cycle. Many lights are stand-alone, while others must be mounted on the ceiling or a shelving unit. Also, be aware that grow lights are super-bright, so you won’t be able to use them in a bedroom (unless you’re an eye mask devotee and are totally unbothered by brightness akin to an alien spaceship landing as you try to fall asleep).
If you want to start seedlings, such as annuals and perennials, or edibles to plant in your garden this spring. While a sunny south-facing window might work in a pinch, most vegetables and flowers seedlings require 14 to 18 hours of light per day to thrive. When they don’t get enough light, they eventually become weak and spindly. A grow light can give your babies a strong start in life so they’ll survive transplanting into your garden later.
How safe is Grow LED lights to use for indoor grow?
Grow LED Lights are safe for plants if you are buying certified ones. Always check for the certifications and warranty while buying the Grow light for your indoor space to avoid any damage to your crops or tent space. An ideal grow LED light must be CSA, or UL certified. Also, take care of a few things while using the grow light to avoid any damage:
There must not be any humidity or moisture around your LED light to prevent damage.
Never overload the circuit as it will shorten your light lifespan and decline its performance.
Use eye protection like sunglasses while operating LED lights to avoid harmful UV rays.
Features:
SCOPEX combines outstanding efficiency, intensity and spread into one incredible plug-and-play array, the SCOPEX PRO horticultural LED light has all the latest and greatest features to give you both the power and control you need to get the absolute best results out of your space. The grow light is a lightweight horticultural fixture that features a super thin design which allows it to go to work in minimal clearance vertical racking systems. The 680W luminaire provides uniform coverage over a 5'x5' area during the vegetative stage and a 4'x4' area during the flowering stage. Save 40% of energy costs compared to 1000W HPS and HID lamps with additional savings available from lower heat and HVAC costs.
OCL SKWID 1900 Pro LED 680W Grow Light
Features:
The OCL SKWID 1900 PRO LED is a high performance energy efficient alternative to the traditional commercial 1000W DE HID fixtures. The efficacy of this fixture is very impressive at 3.04 μmol per watt. At 680 watts this will lead to 2070 μmol s-1 The eight bars are passively cooled in an extra wide shape to enhance spread and coverage. The absence of moving cooling parts, reduces the possibilty of mechanical failure. The OCL SKWID 1900 PRO LED is dimmable and delivers broad, full-spectrum light anywhere from 160w to 680w while maintaining efficiency. The dim switch on the driver makes it easy to control the light intensity. An optional OCL Lightning Touchscreen Controller can also be applied to achieve more complex dimming requirements.
Factors to Consider Before Buying Grow Lights for Plants
Before we reveal the different grow lights for plants, there are quite a few factors to consider. Therefore, we condense them into a handful of handy categories below.
Сost
First thing’s first; what is your budget? If it is under $100, you can still find something. However, you won’t get anywhere near the yield of what a $1,000+ high-quality LED system provides, for instance. Also, bear in mind that you need different lighting for the various stages of the grow cycle.
It is best to calculate how many plants you need each year. MMJ patients and regular recreational users are best served making a one-off investment in decent standard lights. Also, the more harvests you intend to have, the quicker you ‘pay off’ the cost of lights. If you only plan to grow plants occasionally, HIDs may fit the bill because of their cheaper initial cost.
Ventilation
Certain lights run significantly hotter than others. HIDs, for instance, run extremely hot and need an air conditioning unit. Otherwise, the temperature of your grow room could become excessive and harm your plant’s growth. Please note this is an extra expense to add to the ‘cheaper’ HID setup.
Space
How big is your grow room going to be? If you don’t have much space, you should steer clear of ‘hot’ lights, or else the room’s temperature will increase rapidly. You also won’t have enough space to install an AC unit.
Safety
Check your breaker board to ensure there are plenty of outlets and enough power to handle your lighting easily. Next, go through your full list of equipment to determine its power usage. If you don’t have enough power capacity, the risk of electrical fires increases markedly.
Growth Cycle Stage
The lighting required by plants varies according to their stage in the growth cycle. Young plants require a different light spectrum from their mature counterparts. For example, Metal Halide lights are associated with plants in the vegetative stage. In contrast, HPS lighting is frequently used in the blooming phase.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for discretion, LED grow lights and fluorescent grow lights are the likeliest options. However, if you’re after efficiency, HID is probably the best grow light for plants available. That is, as long as you don’t mind the increase in your electricity bill.
Then again, if you have a grow space of less than five square feet, fluorescent light is enough when your plants are small. You can upgrade to a 250W HPS as the plants get larger. If you have space, an MH light for plants in the vegetative stage and HPS for the blooming phase works well. Using MH lighting throughout is fine but will have fewer flowers, more foliage, and a lower yield.
Different options work best for different solutions, so pick the one that’s right for you and work to its advantages. Once you have selected the right light for your needs, you can start growing plants. After choosing the soil type, your fertilizer preferences, and a few other things, of course!
