3 Best Cheap LED Grow Lights For Best Yields - 2022 Review
Are you looking for the best LED grow lights?
Your search is complete here…
We’ve found high-quality grow lights that can help you grow quality and healthy plants…
So, here’s our list of the best LED grow lights for the indoor plants and flowers.
How Lighting is Measured
Before going through the various types of artificial light, it is good to see how light is measured, and what each bulb has to offer.
There are a few ways that light is measured, but some are almost obsolete, but still used in some things. Foot-candles or candle power is one such term, and this often relates to flashlights or spotlights that shine in millions or thousands of candle power.
Temperature is one of the primary terms you will see when growing indoors and looking for the ideal light. This temperature has nothing to do with heat output, but it is a reference to the natural color of the light produced.
When we see cool lights, these deliver light at the blue end of the spectrum (also called blue light) while when we look at lights that are warmly looking, these are providing light at the orange/ red end of the spectrum.
Lights can be measured by watt power, nanometers (nm), or Lumens most often. The watt power (or wattage) is the unit of energy required to run the lighting, and it is the term most people are familiar with. When it comes to growing lights, these are often rated to the number of watts needed for each centimeter squared of the surface to be illuminated.
Lumens is a reflection of how bright an LED grow light is, and although used, these lumens are not actually a rating that does anything for the plants. The light required by plants is beyond the physically visible spectrum.
When light is measured in nanometers, this is actually the light we can see. This visible light falls in the range of 400 to 700 nm. When you compare this to the color spectrum, the warm or red end will be reading 730 nm, and at the other end in the color part of the spectrum (violet), this will be reading 400 nm.
Almost all indoor grow lights fall in the range of 450 nm to 730 nm. These are the most crucial nm measures with one addition of 650 nm in the middle of the spectrum.
We all know that plants need to photosynthesize, and for plants to do this, there is the need for light at the 450 nm and 650 nm levels. With these, plants can create the food it requires from the light available along with water and carbon dioxide. It is the green pigment where chlorophyll is produced.
When plants use the 650 nm and 730 nm ranges, this allows them to control their flowering through another pigment which is called phytochrome.
This is why the full spectrum of light is required at varying stages of a plant’s growth, and this is why it is crucial to have the best grow lights that allow growers to replicate the light provided by the sun in an outdoor garden.
ECO Farm SP-600 Samsung Foldable Dimmable Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
Features:
With a high efficiency of 2.8 umol/j and a power consumption of 630W, this ECO Farm LED grow light facilitates efficient growing operations, helping you efficiently optimize plant growth, improve yield quality and reduce operating costs. This full spectrum LED grow light promotes photosynthesis at all stages of growth, especially flowering, from cutting/seeding, nutrition and flowering. Grow lights for indoor plants replicate the spectrum of natural sunlight and output a broad, consistent and pronounced wavelength range from 400 to 700nm that can be grown throughout the plant life cycle. It can help your plants grow healthier and have better harvests. LEDs generate far less heat than HPS and other HID lights, making them ideal for gardening. The aluminum heatsink, along with the wide 6 passive cooling strips, better removes heat to keep you cool and reduces ambient heat in the grow space for longer lamp life.
Spectrum King 600W LED LowPro Flower
Features:
The Spectrum King LED grow light is a 660W grow light system with an efficiency equivalent to a 1000W LED. The grow light system is designed for vertical shelving solutions; you mount the lights 3 inches from the plants. Grow lights offer a 4X4 footprint. It offers 141.57 efficacy and a lumen output of 102,000 lumens. LED grow lights feel like plants are getting closer to the sun. The planting system is designed for a 3" tall vertical racking solution. The LED grow light system is the shortest and brightest LED grow light system on the market. The LEDs are rated at 50,000 hours to ensure long life. So don’t worry about spending unnecessarily on grow light fixtures.
Features:
The HI-PAR LED Grow Light is an innovative true full-spectrum LED fixture, with a futuristic design unlike anything else; the HI-PAR 660w LED Spectro delivers maximum performance and efficiency with removable LED bars for customization while maintaining the highest possible output and huge coverage. SPECTRO 660w LED is built tough for durability and is compatible with the HI-PAR Control Station V2. Utilizing a unique and innovative design, the Hi-Par Spectro LED 660W delivers maximum power and efficiency to guarantee amazing results.
What Factors Should You Consider When Buying LED Grow Lights?
Having a wide array of LED grow light models from different manufacturers is a welcomed development. It means growers have a lot of options to choose from. However, it also makes it tricky to make the right choice. This section outlines the important factors, and features you should look out for when shopping for your next set of LED grow lights.
1. Price
The truth is the quality of LED grow lights you can get depends on how much money you have to spend. While these devices are not exactly cheap, growers should set a realistic budget and work with the same while shopping. The goal here is to get lights that offer the best value for their price. A good LED grow light may cost between less than 100 USD and up to 1,000 USD, depending on the specifications. For example, a full spectrum LED grow light will cost more than models without UV lighting. Other factors like the diode brand, light intensity, and warranty length may also contribute to the overall cost of any grow light model. However, you will most likely find cost-effective options that fall within that price range irrespective of what you are looking for.
2. Light Intensity
Light intensity simply means the amount of power you get from a grow light. Growers tend to assess the light intensity of a grow light by its wattage. But this is not entirely accurate. Other specifications like the Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD), Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF), and efficacy all contribute to the overall light intensity a LED grow light delivers. The Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF) of a grow light is the amount of light it produces per second and is measured in umol/s. It is the official unmanipulated measurement of the full amount of light any LED grow light can produce. The Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) is slightly different. It estimates the number of photons that reaches a square meter of the grow area per second. Measured in umol/m2/s, this metric shows how well the plants use the photons from the light source. Various plant types have their own recommended PPFD. It is best to go for grow lights that efficiently and equally distribute light across the grow area. The last contributory factor — efficacy — describes how many photons you derive on the same power consumption.
3. Spectrum
The spectrum is another essential factor to watch out for when you want to buy grow lights. Not all LED grow lights are full spectrum, but it is best to go for full spectrum models. Full-spectrum light comprises five different sections — the UV light, blue light, visible PAR light, red light, and the far-red light. Having all wavelengths of light means a single full spectrum LED grow light can contribute to all the stages and aspects of plant growth. In addition to their efficiency, adopting full spectrum LED grow light makes the plant appear more natural, making it easier to discover and monitor plant diseases and pests. The higher amount of green light in a full spectrum grow light translates to higher PPFD, which is great for light-hungry medical plants. That way, they can absorb more green light and increase yield.
4. Coverage Area
Knowing the precise dimensions of your growing space before shopping for a LED grow light is important. For example, hobbyist growers grow in 5 square meters or smaller areas, while commercial growers can go several hundred square meters or even thousands in some cases. The smaller growing areas can rely on less powerful lights. Still, anything larger than 5 square meters will require multiple large, powerful lights to cover all the edges and corners and ensure an even light intensity over the canopy.
Conclusion
Finding the best LED grow lights can be quite a daunting task. LED stands for quality, and quality comes with the misconception that it’s always expensive.
LED grow lights have been successful in producing high yields and high quality results.
So if you’re planning to buy grow lights, don’t forget to check out our list.
