How LED Grow Lights Work

With so many people looking for efficient, long lasting, energy efficient lighting, the market has been flooded with all types of LED lights. Top-rated LED grow light manufacturers offer a wide range of high quality models that can run virtually all of the way into the ground for excellent coverage even in the most difficult growing conditions. LED lights also offer the highest quality of light for a significant fraction of what you’d pay for comparable fluorescent or incandescent lighting. Whether you’re a large scale grower or a small personal grower LED lights offer the very best in indoor gardening.

The secret to how LED lights work is in their wick diameter. A LED grow light with a wick diameter of two inches or less will produce the most efficient amount of light possible. Other factors affecting the efficiency of the lights are the type of metal used to make the casing, the depth of the casing as well as the length of the wires. The other factors influencing the efficiency of the plants being grown are the amount of water used and the soil type.

Another factor in how LED grow lights work is in their heat sink and its size. The larger the heat sink the more efficiently the heat is dissipated keeping the grower’s wallet stuffed. In a very hot growing environment like a hydroponic garden using a very large heat sink will mean that the total amount of energy expended by the lights is greater than using a smaller heat sink. While the results may be different in the end it’s probably best to go with a large heat sink that gives the highest efficiency.

One of the most overlooked but important factors in how LED grow lights work is the type of diodes that the lights use. There are three types of diodes used in the lights, an HPS, a daylight fluorescent and an LED. Each of these diodes has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on where the plant is being grown. Some of the advantages of using LEDs are that they use almost no energy and therefore are extremely economical, the bulbs have longer life spans than other types of diodes and most importantly the diodes can be replaced easily as they tend to get older.

The main disadvantage of LEDs is that they use up to ninety percent of their energy in heating up the semiconductor diodes. Due to this fact manufacturers have developed new light-emitting diodes that use a lesser amount of energy but offer the same quality of output. A good example of this is the HID lighting that has become extremely popular amongst gardeners recently due to its low energy consumption rate and reliability. LEDs are still not as popular as HIDs but over the next few years their popularity will definitely increase and so will the demand for them to replace HID lights.

One of the major differences between how HID grow lights work and how LEDs work is the method in which the light is put through the grower’s plants. Most HID light bulbs are attached to a heat sink, which sits on top of the plants and disperses the heat into the environment without the need for air circulation. LEDs on the other hand must be attached to a heat sink that must be located near the plant. This heat sink absorbs the energy from the bulb and passes it on to the semiconductor diodes, which then in turn emit light into the plants. An HPS must sit on top of the grower’s plant, while a GGH must sit on the side of the grower and spread out across the entire surface of the plant.