Many times the brightness of a light is measured by its Lumens & Lux. However, Lumens and Lux only tell you how bright a light source appears to the human eye, not how well it will grow plants. In fact, the human eye is most sensitive to wavelengths of light which plants don’t need for photosynthesis. To the human eye, the colors green and yellow appear much brighter than the colors red and blue. While green wavelengths are reflected by plants, reds & blues are the primary colors used for photosynthesis. Lumen, therefore, can not accurately compare the plant growing capability of grow lights, especially when it comes to a LED grow light.
LED vs. HID
Traditional grow lights such as High Intensity Discharge (HID) have very high Lumens because they are not targeted to specific wavelengths like the LED growlights. Around 80% of the light coming out of these traditional light sources is either not absorbed by plants or is in the form of UV, or IR (heat). HID lighting can reach temperatures of over 1400 degrees F at the surface of the bulb. This excess heat then needs to be ventilated and directly translates into wasted energy that is included in a lumen rating.
Advances in LED technology have resulted in grow lights for indoor plants which follow the necessary photosynthesis activation radiation peaks. These LED Grow Lights exclude colors of light that are useful for human vision but not useful for plant growth. One great example is the 600 Watt LED Grow Light which reaches incredible levels of efficiency when compared to its 1400 Watt HID counterpart. With a power draw of only 480 Watts, this light is able to cover the same grow area with nearly one third of the power consumption.
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