August 02, 2022
If you are an indoor gardening enthusiast, you must know that growing plants and keeping them alive is a daunting task. Besides love and care, they also need the right amount of water, soil and light. The first two are easy to arrange, but the last can be a bit complicated, especially if you live in an area with few windows.
Adding supplemental brightness with grow lights solves this problem by bringing light indoors and giving your leafy buddies the nutrients they need. You’ll find a variety of options on the market, including hanging, decorative, and minimalist designs. The challenge is finding a product that fits your budget and needs.
So, we did some research and found some of the best LED grow lights on the market right now — check out the rest of our article to help pick the right light for you!
If your house doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, that won’t stop you from gardening and considering better productivity for your houseplants, grow lights are your best bet.
Grow lights replicate natural sunlight to houseplants. It can also replace the natural warmth that houseplants need for better health.
Grow lights stimulate the process of photosynthesis, thereby helping houseplants grow and thrive better. If you use an LED as a grow light, it can also provide an ideal color spectrum for indoor plants.
To get the best out of your grow lights, think carefully about their settings. If you’re using an incandescent bulb, it should be at least 24 inches away from your houseplants, as these bulbs can generate excessive heat that can adversely affect your plants.
The minimum gap between the lamp and the plant should be at least 12 inches for fluorescent lamps and 6 inches for LEDs. And you have to place these grow lights above the plants so that all parts of the houseplant get the same lighting.
To get the best results from grow lights, consider the size of your houseplants. Use one bulb if the bulb is small, more for larger size bulbs.
ECO Farm ECOZ 250W Samsung 301H Chips LED Grow Light
Features:
The ECO Farm LED grow light is built with the best parts, Top Bing Samsung LM301H & Osam Chip and brand driver for higher efficacy and longer lifespan; Compared with old plant lights, the average PPFD is increased by 30%, and the yield and quality are increased by 50%. 8 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. At the same time, it also has an ideal full-spectrum and amazing heat dissipation, close to natural sunlight. The spectrum applies to the entire stage of indoor planting.
Model number: ECOZ 250
Input voltage: 100–265vac
Efficacy: 2.75 umol/J
Coverage Area: 2*2ft
Power Factor: 0.95–0.99
Lifespan L90: >50,000 hrs
Total Number of LED’s: 480PCS
IP Rating: IP65
Body Color: Silver
Beam Angle: 120°
Operating environment: -10°C to 40°C
Features:
Operating at just 240W, the GrowPros LED Grow Light is an LED rack lighting solution designed for commercial indoor and greenhouse applications that controls the plant cycle and is especially optimized for plant growth stages. The HM240 series has a crop yield of 1.8 grams per watt (dry). High PPFD and PAR indicate high efficiency, or light output per unit of power consumption. Compared to traditional HID and HPS light sources, the HM240 saves about 50% energy, and you can save a lot of energy over time. Thanks to the passive cooling thermal management system, the HM240 series systems run cooler, meaning your lighting system will last longer while maintaining high light output levels.
Wattage: 240W
Input Power: 120V-277V
Frequency: 50/60Hz
Control: 0–10V dimming (0–100%), Wireless
Power Factor: 0.9
THD: 20%
Thermal Management: Passive
Working Temperature: -40ºF ~ 122ºF
IP Rating: IP44, Suitable for dry & damp locations
Warranty: 7 year limited
The distance of the grow lights determines the intensity of the light and the width of the coverage.
When you start, keep the plants at a distance so the force isn’t too strong. Generally, you can keep plants several feet away from grow lights.
When you place plants too close to grow lights, the width of the mulch becomes smaller. So if you’re using grow lights for a single plant, you can place the plants close to the lights, but if you have more plants, you’ll need to adjust the lights and move them away from the lights.
The most important features to consider
Full Spectrum Lamp
While natural light sources are ideal, indoor gardens don’t always get regular sunlight. One of the main reasons to buy specialty indoor grow lights instead of using regular incandescent or fluorescent lamps is that regular bulbs and household lights typically don’t offer full-spectrum lights or specialty-spectrum lights, both for the healthiest, most efficient growing cycles. Dedicated grow lights should always have full-spectrum lighting, and ideally also have options for partial-spectrum lighting, allowing you to tailor the lighting to the needs of your plants.
Energy efficient
A typical growing photoperiod can be 12 to 18 hours, sometimes 24 hours. If your grow lights aren’t designed to maximize energy efficiency, that can lead to expensive electricity bills. Fortunately, most consumer and nearly all commercial grow lights are explicitly designed to be energy efficient, no matter how much light they use. It’s also why most grow lights use LEDs rather than incandescents — although the added benefit is that they stay cooler for extended periods of time and are therefore safer.
Adjustability
No two grow settings are the same, so whether you’re looking for a high-wattage 1200-watt grow light or a USB-powered 60-watt model for small plant and office use, the model you choose matters a lot about the degree of adjustability. This can include features like fully adjustable goosenecks for smaller lights and adjustable tripods for floor plants, but it also includes multiple brightness settings, auto on/off, multiple timer modes, and even multiple Lighting type mode, etc. Fortunately, these are common features of various popular models.
Sometimes the hardest part of owning houseplants is creating an environment for them to thrive. Worrying about your plants getting proper sun exposure can be difficult, but grow lights are an easy solution!
October 20, 2023