Mars Hydro FC 8000 LM301H LED Grow Light VS Dio-Tech Satellite Unit 830W LED Grow Light
Growing plants indoors requires proper lighting.
If you have limited space in your home or greenhouse, you can buy inexpensive LED grow lights.
However, you should consider a few things before buying them.
The first thing to consider is the area you’ll be covering with the lights.
Next, you’ll want to decide how many lights you need.
Moreover, you need to consider how much headroom you’ll have over your plants. LEDs can be hung either high or low.
Which Type of Grow Light is Best?
Grow lights for indoor gardening are not one-size-fits-all. The best light for you depends on a variety of factors, from the light requirements of your plant to the size of your space to your budget. Here are a few things to consider as you choose the grow light that best fits your needs
Light Spectrum: What growth phase is your plant in? What spectrum of light is it craving? The answers to these questions will help you determine if you need a short-wavelength, long-wavelength, or full-spectrum grow light.
Heat Production: While heat production is always best kept to a minimum, some plants are more tolerant than others and the actual intensity varies based on your light placement and the distance between the lamp and your plants. Fluorescent and LED lamps will provide better efficiency, while HIDs tend to get hot.
Physical size: Do you have room for a setup that requires a ballast and several-foot tube light? Or are you better served by a compact-yet-powerful LED. Your physical growing space will inform your needs.
Cost: The best grow light for you also depends on your budget. LEDs are a compact, full-spectrum solution that doesn’t produce heat but costs more than other options. CFL lamps, on the other hand, are more affordable and still provide consistent results.
Mars Hydro FC 8000 LM301H LED Grow Light
Features:
The Mars Hydro LED Grow Light is designed and engineered with commercial cultivators in mind, but is also perfect for nearly any personal grow. This powerful light delivers impressive results with an average uniform PPFD of 1500 μmol/s, sufficient to activate 100% photosynthesis and achieve maximum yield with or without CO2. The FC 8000 is the ideal light for almost any indoor growing scene, including single- or multi-shelf vertical farms, thanks to its versatile design and Samsung LM301B diodes for stronger canopy penetration and more consistent output. The FC 8000 LED Grow Light provides uniform standard readings thanks to an excellent 12-band spectrum, including IR, for maximum photosynthetic response. With enhanced blue and red light, plant growth increases with higher yields, larger flowers, and a more potent, higher-quality end product.
Dio-Tech Satellite Unit 830W LED Grow Light
Features:
Dio-Tech lighting solutions are designed by growers for growers. The result of years of research and development devoted to optimizing plant growth performance. Dio-Tech is powerful enough to not only replace but completely outperform your existing HID lighting, with a lighting formula that provides the ultimate spectrum for your garden at every stage of the plant growth cycle. The Dio-tech 830W LED combines a high-end Osram chip with a built-in dimmer. Dio-Tech 830 starts in F1 mode (flowering spectrum) but has a wide spectrum for excellent vegetative growth.
What Factors Should You Consider When Buying LED Grow Lights?
Having a wide array of LED grow light models from different manufacturers is a welcomed development. It means growers have a lot of options to choose from. However, it also makes it tricky to make the right choice. This section outlines the important factors, and features you should look out for when shopping for your next set of LED grow lights.
1. Price
The truth is the quality of LED grow lights you can get depends on how much money you have to spend. While these devices are not exactly cheap, growers should set a realistic budget and work with the same while shopping. The goal here is to get lights that offer the best value for their price. A good LED grow light may cost between less than 100 USD and up to 1,000 USD, depending on the specifications. For example, a full spectrum LED grow light will cost more than models without UV lighting. Other factors like the diode brand, light intensity, and warranty length may also contribute to the overall cost of any grow light model. However, you will most likely find cost-effective options that fall within that price range irrespective of what you are looking for.
2. Light Intensity
Light intensity simply means the amount of power you get from a grow light. Growers tend to assess the light intensity of a grow light by its wattage. But this is not entirely accurate. Other specifications like the Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD), Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF), and efficacy all contribute to the overall light intensity a LED grow light delivers. The Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF) of a grow light is the amount of light it produces per second and is measured in umol/s. It is the official unmanipulated measurement of the full amount of light any LED grow light can produce. The Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) is slightly different. It estimates the number of photons that reaches a square meter of the grow area per second. Measured in umol/m2/s, this metric shows how well the plants use the photons from the light source. Various plant types have their own recommended PPFD. It is best to go for grow lights that efficiently and equally distribute light across the grow area. The last contributory factor — efficacy — describes how many photons you derive on the same power consumption.
3. Spectrum
The spectrum is another essential factor to watch out for when you want to buy grow lights. Not all LED grow lights are full spectrum, but it is best to go for full spectrum models. Full-spectrum light comprises five different sections — the UV light, blue light, visible PAR light, red light, and the far-red light. Having all wavelengths of light means a single full spectrum LED grow light can contribute to all the stages and aspects of plant growth. In addition to their efficiency, adopting full spectrum LED grow light makes the plant appear more natural, making it easier to discover and monitor plant diseases and pests. The higher amount of green light in a full spectrum grow light translates to higher PPFD, which is great for light-hungry medical plants. That way, they can absorb more green light and increase yield.
4. Coverage Area
Knowing the precise dimensions of your growing space before shopping for a LED grow light is important. For example, hobbyist growers grow in 5 square meters or smaller areas, while commercial growers can go several hundred square meters or even thousands in some cases. The smaller growing areas can rely on less powerful lights. Still, anything larger than 5 square meters will require multiple large, powerful lights to cover all the edges and corners and ensure an even light intensity over the canopy.
5. Warranty
The warranty a manufacturer provides can get you to buy LED grow lights from them or not. While most LED grow lights will serve as expected without issues, a good warranty can protect you from unexpected expenses.
Conclusion
Grow lights can be beneficial and quite essential for your indoor plants. If you know your plants’ specific sunlight and heat requirements, then with the help of a premium setup, you’ll be well on your way to having a green thumb and thriving plants! Good luck!
