Do LED Grow Lights Really Help Plants Grow? (2023 Updated)

Most growers today are aware of the advantages of running LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights compared to HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights as the best horticultural LED grow lights are at least 50 more efficient than the best double ended HPS or CMH lights %. LEDs convert 50% more electrical energy into light.

Benefits of Using LED Strip Lights for Plant Growth

There are a few benefits of using LED lights for plant growth.

Energy-Efficient
Strip lights are more energy-efficient than traditional grow lights. They use less power and last longer, so you’ll save money in the long run.

Long Lifespan
LED strip lights also have a longer lifespan since they last for 50,000 hours or more, so you won’t have to replace them as often.

Low Heat Output
LED strip lights produce very little heat. It means you won’t have to worry about burning your plants with the heat from the LEDs

ECO Farm ECOZ 510W Samsung 301H Chips LED Grow Light With Separately UV+IR Control

Features:

The ECO Farm grow light is Built with the best parts, Top Bing Samsung LM301H & Osam Chip and brand driver for higher efficacy and longer lifespan; to ensure high-efficiency PPE 2.75umol/J, better heat dissipation, and long service life. Compared with old plant lights, the average PPFD is increased by 30%, and the yield and quality are increased by 50%. With 6 LED growth lights, each rod is covered with high-grade glue, waterproof, and easy to clean, not easy to be filled with dust. This plant growth light also uses a special dimmer, which can precisely adjust the brightness. 0–10 levels are optional. This means that you can see clear brightness levels and record while adjusting. No need to worry about differences. Full-Cycle Sunlike Spectrum, close to natural sunlight. The spectrum applies to the entire stage of indoor planting.

BESTVA BAT W400 Dimmable LED Grow Light

Features:

The BESTVA LED is the solution for indoor growing environments where ceiling height and distance from the tree canopy are critical. The BAT W400 is ideal for use in vertical racks, low rooms, benches and even tents. The grow light provides an efficient full spectrum and a healthy red-blue ratio to drive photo composition. Light energy between 500–599nm, previously thought to be wasted, penetrates deep into the plant canopy and promotes photomorphogenic responses. High colour rendering “white” light helps quickly identify potential threats to crops and provides superior working conditions and safety for workers. It is great for flowering and plant production.

Mammoth Lighting Fold Series MF04S LED Grow Light

Features:

This Mammoth LED grow light draws 430 watts from the wall,achieving the high efficiency and higher average PPFD at 4'x4' flowering coverage,completely beat the 800w HPS/MH grow lamp. Simple structure,detachable driver,no fan,no noise. 4 aluminum light bars for better heat disappear and stay cool while enabling even light spread.Save you a lot at ventilation and exhaust. The most powerful daisy chain, controller available, especially beneficial for home,grow tent,grow room,greenhouse,garden,vertical Racks,hydroponic,soil growth. Proven high-yield full spectrum. Born for big buds,Rapid plant response from seed to flower,speeds up flowering time and boost yields.Easy dimming design meets needs of indoor plants at different stage of growth

LED Grow Light Buyer’s Guide

How to choose your grow light can be extremely confusing, even with all the information out there on the internet. A good LED Grow Light Buyer’s Guide will help you learn how to evaluate grow lights that may look great on paper, but fail to deliver where it really counts — in your plants! Below is some advice on how to know what a truly great LED grow light looks like, and why it’s not just important, but essential that you choose your grow light carefully.

Efficiency
There was a time when choosing a grow light was simple — all you needed to know was what brand and wattage you wanted. Things have changed. Drastically. The market has been flooded with grow light options and it can be quite challenging to figure out which light is best for you. Below is some advice on how to know what a truly great LED grow light looks like.

Micromole per Joule
The industry standard for measuring grow light efficiency is micromole per joule (sometimes written as umol/j, μmol/j, umolj-1 or PPF/W). That means that for every joule of electrical energy (joule = watt * second) a certain number of photon micromoles are produced. One micromole = 602,000,000,000,000,000. That’s a dizzyingly large amount of photons!

Highly efficient LED grow light range from 1.5 μmol/j and up (this number is constantly improving). Many of the most efficient LED grow lights are low power and, as a buyer, you may have to weigh out whether you are looking for efficiency or intensity, because at times one can be at the sacrifice of the other. Top brand HPS (high pressure sodium) lights are around 1.7 μmol/j. And while LED grow lights get more expensive than their HPS counterparts, they pay off in the long run with increased efficiency and much less heat output. Choosing an LED based grow light will save you money on both electricity bills and replacement bulbs.

Wall Plug Efficiency
LED grow lights are one of the most efficient types of grow lights available. They use about 50% of the electricity that HPS or MH lights use and produce more lumens per watt than fluorescent lighting. When you need a new light, think about whether you want an LED or not before making a purchase. It could save you money in the long run.

Another measurement relevant to DIY LED grow light enthusiasts is wall plug efficiency (WPE). This is a ratio of the amount of energy put in and the amount of light produced. This can be expressed as a percentage, such as 60% “wall plug efficiency,” which means that 60% of the electricity that goes through the light gets converted into light. The rest gets turned into heat that will need to be dealt with in the grow light itself as well as the room that houses the light.

It’s not typical to rate a grow light’s wall plug efficiency, but high-quality diodes made specifically for horticulture occasionally have this listed. For instance, high quality blue LEDs at 450nm can reach wall plug efficiencies of 60%, red LEDs at 660nm with 50% WPE, and green 530nm with 25% WPE. Wall plug efficiency can be calculated using a diode’s radiant flux (not luminous flux, which is a measure of how bright a light appears to the human eye and not how many photons it is producing) divided by the total wattage of electricity the diode uses. Remember to convert between milliwatt and watt, as necessary (1000 milliwatts = 1 watt).

Achieving High Efficiency

LED grow lights are the most efficient type of grow light on the market, which means that they use less electricity and last longer. But all LED grow lights are not created equal. Here is some advice for buying an LED grow light that achieves high efficiency.

Brands increase their efficiency by having high quality diodes, running them at low energy, having excellent heat management, and using a high percent of the most efficient diode wavelengths. While some LED companies market themselves as having many different color LEDs, this can often be at sacrificed efficiency, since each color of LED has a different efficiency at producing light. For instance, 450nm, 660nm, and high kelvin white (white LEDs are 450nm with a phosphor coating) are very efficient, while green LEDs are not very efficient.

Intensity
The intensity of the light is measured in watts per square foot. A good rule of thumb is that you want at least 100 watts per square foot if you are growing anything other than leafy greens. If the light doesn’t say the intensity, it’s a good idea to ask for a sample before purchase so you can test it out.

While there are no doubt that grow light spectrum is important, some studies suggest that even more important than spectrum is light intensity. There are a number of ways of measuring the intensity of a grow light — some good and others bad.

Conclusion

In the end, the best time to use grow lights is always in winter, giving you a head start on plants and crops that normally thrive in summer. Being able to sprout plants in a controlled way gives you a better chance of success than relying on unreliable winter weather.

For some plants that require a specific transition to daylight, grow lights are really the only option, as they can be programmed, or manually turned on and off, to provide 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16 hours of sunlight per day.

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