January 12, 2022
With all the confusion that exists on the internet around indoor gardening, choosing the best grow lights for herbs can be a confusing task for indoor growers.
There are tens of famous brands of grow lights, and there exist hundreds of contradicting opinions on each one of them.
People spend hours online trying to figure out which grow light to get for their herbs just to end up becoming more confused and indecisive.
Don’t worry, we won’t let you go down that road. In this article, we’ll present to you the perfect choice of a grow light for herbs.
For the purpose of writing this article, we spent days researching different grow lights and investigating gardeners’ experiences with them.
Other than installing and fixing indoor grow lights, you also need to do adjustments. These adjustments should be done according to the space of your grow room. The plants need proper lighting, ventilation, and temperature. You should design your room in such a way that no space and lights get wasted. Hence, you should always keep in mind about the type of growth you want to achieve.
Proper ventilation will not only promotes plant growth but provides strength to the branches and maintains a consistent balance of humidity and temperature. Along with that, when the plant reaches the flowering stages, they release an unbearable pungent smell. By maintaining a good space and environment you can eradicate the smell too.
Designing the grow room along with lighting is a crucial part. While doing that, don’t forget to maintain a specific distance, and lighting with proper wattage and other electrical components.
Grow light for other plants
These different types of grow lights can also be used for growing other types of plants. Lighting factor is crucial. Lack of adequate lighting can make the plants turn pale green and white. Even you are growing different plants. After knowing which type of plants you are going to grow indoors, you can slowly add some supplementary lights.
There are various advantages of growing other plants indoors. Such as you can control the pests and control the weather as per the need. You can use different reflectors to increase the quantity of light. The grow lights should be kept above 12 inches. But, you should adjust the height regularly according to the plant’s growth.
How to estimate
First, you need to calculate the amount of watt of your grow lights (it depends on low light and high light). The wattage should be calculated on an area per square foot. If you are growing in a larger area, you will require lights with more power wattage. You can also use grow light calculator for calculating and compare different types of grow lights. To install a grow light, you need to evaluate the indoor space and the type of bulb. Generally, plants need around 30 Watt light on every square foot.
ECO Farm DBL5000 Full Spectrum LED Grow Light 480W
Features:
This ECO Farm LED grow light compatibles with 1296pcs Samsung LM281B LEDs,3000k(720pcs)+5000k(282pcs)+660nm(288pcs) Red LEDs+730nm(6pcs) IR LEDs, which can optimize the plant grow performance at every growth stage from seedling to harvest. The plant will respond to it rapidly, speeds up flowering time and boost yields. The grow light boast a High-Efficiency Rating of PPF per Joule reach up to 2.5μmol/J, providing powerful light output and enhancing canopy penetration to result in higher-yielding footprint, consumption and 50% more harvest than HPS grow light. This grow light uses the newest aluminium heat-sink design, No fans ZERO noise, passively cooled with aluminium alloy 6 LED bars as well as the detachable driver that contributes to better airflow and great heat dissipation, reducing the probability of problems due to overheating, allowing your plants receive more energy.
BESTVA BAT W400 Dimmable LED Grow Light
Features:
The BAT W400 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.
Features:
The iL5x from ILUMINAR Lighting provides a tuned, full-spectrum to your factory. Built especially for propagative and vegetative phases requiring lower μmols. The iLX Series delivers a high, 2.6 μmol/j efficacy with an easy snap-on, snap-off installation. The ILUMINAR Lighting deliver a tuned, full-spectrum to your plants when a lower μmol output is needed. Low heat output and low energy costs make these LED horticultural lights the ultimate choice for starters and seedlings. Delivering excellent uniformity over a shared 5x5 space and pure growing power with up to 1100 μmol/s in the iL5x model. These LED fixtures can be used in a variety of environments — mounted in a rack for tiered indoor gardens or hung as a stand-alone fixture.
Each kind of LED light has a specific set of ratings; lumens, watts, and kelvins.
Each of them tells you something different about how the light operates. You need to find the ideal combination of all three ratings to light your grow room effectively.
Let’s check out the essential elements of lighting your grow room and how each rating comes into play.
Consider the Size of Your Grow Room
Each type of LED light produces a certain amount of usable spectrum, measured in lumens. Lumens indicate how brightly the light shines and how far away from the plants you can place it.
You need to place lights with a low lumen count relatively close to the plants. Devices with a higher lumen count can be further away from your bushes.
If you have a small grow room, you could install a few lights with a high lumen count. Larger growing facilities require more lights with high lumen ratings or many smaller devices.
Energy Budget
With your energy budget, there’s one essential rating. The light’s wattage tells you how much electricity it uses and how quickly.
The typical standard for measuring electricity usage worldwide is the kilowatt-hour. You can calculate how many kilowatt-hours, commonly referred to as units, of electricity you’ll use.
To achieve this, follow these steps:
1 — Divide the wattage by 1,000 to find your ballast’s kilowatt usage.
I.E., a 50-watt unit uses 0.05 kilowatts.
2 — Multiply the result by the number of hours the light will be on each day.
0.05 ✕ 24 = 1.2 kWh each day.
3 — Multiply the daily amount by the number of days in the month.
1.2 ✕ 30 = 36 kWh per light each month.
4 — Calculate the total usage by multiplying the monthly total for each light by the number of lights.
36 kWh ✕ 15 lights = 540 kWh.
5 — To calculate the monthly financial outlay, multiply the overall total by the price per kilowatt-hour in your region.
540 kWh at $0.1331 each means a monthly expenditure of approximately $72.
Plant Type and Needs
Different types of plants have different lighting requirements. The top LED grow lights on the market are all-inclusive but have an exclusive price.
Indoor gardening should always be viewed as a stress-free hobby, rather than a burden. With the natural lighting situation being not so ideal, do not panic — you are not totally out of options. Getting an LED grow light is an excellent way to make growing plants indoors a lot easier — and choosing a model that fits your specific location and setting does not have to be that hard.
For the best LED grow lights for indoor plants, whatever your choice is, the first step is always to get educated first. Sooner than later, you can cultivate your plants in any conditions and enjoy watching them flourish under these magical glows.
October 20, 2023