NextLight 150H LED Grow Light VS ZELION HL LED GROW LIGHT FIXTURE 3 X 2–150W

Growing plants indoors is a popular solution for those who live in an apartment or just don’t have enough garden space. As plants need light to grow correctly, you will have to invest in a special tool which relies on a set of powerful LEDs designed specifically for indoor plant growth. Mimicking the natural rays of the sun is no easy task, but it seems that LED grow lights are very potent for indoor growing. It’s worth mentioning that the LED technology is superior to other artificial methods in terms of energy efficiency and generated heat.

To choose the best LED grow light for your needs you simply need to figure out your needs. Some models deliver a higher power output compared to others so it’s important to choose according to the number of plants you plan on growing. Of course, different types of plants can have distinctive requirements. Another aspect to consider is whether the LED device offers a full spectrum of light. Models that do are usually more effective while also come with higher price tags.

What makes LED Grow Lights different from standard LED lights?

LED Grow Lights are different from the usual LED bulbs in your household. The everyday light only illuminates, while grow lights have a broad spectrum of red and blue that stimulate growth.

LED grow lights come in many shapes and sizes. But as the most needed units of LED grow lights, LED chips have most of the effect on the quality of the lighting, such as spectrum (colors) and photon flux (“brightness”) produced.

Since LED grow light manufacturers can choose the LEDs they use in their lamps, it is crucial to understand which kind of LED grow light best fits the specific application.

One of the advantages of LED grow lights compared to traditional lighting solutions is the ability to match the lighting to the needs of plants.

How To Measure The Range Of Wavelengths And Light’s Intensity

This is a vital factor in buying a LED grow light. Most people think that it’s all about watts per square foot or lumens. In reality, it involves PAR, PPFD, and to a lesser extent, PPFD or watt ratio.

Photosynthetically Active Radiation or PAR is the range for all the different colors or wavelengths of light that plants use for photosynthesis.

Your LED light should have all the different wavelengths or colors of light that makeup PAR to ensure optimal plant growth.

Essentially, your full spectrum lights should have blue colors for the vegetative process and red/orange wavelengths for the flowering stage.

The right light will largely produce light that your plants will surely use for photosynthesis. As a result, little to no electricity goes to waste.

On the other hand, PPFD or Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density is one of the most critical metrics indoor growers should know.

It is a measurement of light intensity, and says how many light photons that fall within the PAR-range hit a given square meter per second.

Keep in mind that PPFD values in the red or wavelengths have the most effect on your yields in the flowering stage of your indoor plants

Why Should You Get LED Grow Lights?

LED grow lights are energy efficient. Compared to CFL lights, you get more light for the same amount of electricity. It also emits less heat and have better heat management.

LEDs work best when used between 12–18 inches away from your plant. If you use CFLs, that would mean finding the right amount of height without putting too much heat on your plants.

Now, LEDs are not exactly the best options for the flowering stage, as HPS lamps shine here. But, with the improvement of technology, LED manufacturers are starting to develop LED fixtures that can work for the flowering stage.

It’s only a matter of time when the horticulture industry will have LEDs designed for each phase of growth.

LEDs may be a bit pricier upfront, but you will reap the benefits later on. But don’t get too bothered also with the price, as some LED brands are becoming more competitively priced.

LED grow lights are often plug-and-play devices. That means you do not need a ballast, and these fixtures are ready to shine out of the box.

NextLight 150h LED Grow Light

Features:

NextLight LED grow lights use full-spectrum white light that simulates natural sunlight. Their light output is similar to HPS bulbs, but with more blue light, so they are very effective in all growth cycles.

High Energy Efficiency with 2.6umol/J,delivers powerful light output and uniform canopy penetration.Veg footprint is 3 x 3 ft, Flowering footprint is 2 x 2 ft.

The Grow Light has the dimmer switch making it perfect to adjust the intensity for all stages of growth .Let you directly control the growth process of plants.

Designed for growers who want to maximize yield in a limited space, with powerful functions and versatility at all stages of plant growth

ZELION HL LED GROW LIGHT FIXTURE 3 X 2–150W

Features:

Choose OSLON LED to match the absorption peaks of chlorophyll a and b to enhance plant reproduction. OSLON LED L70 life class >100,000 hours. The most advanced optical design and materials to achieve the best PAR (photosynthetically active radiation)

Passive cooling, completely silent and reliable, adopts high safety performance driver to achieve high Par-direction output, longer life span, can accelerate the growth process of plants, increase yield, and save energy costs.
-IP65 grade can operate safely in humid and outdoor environments, with dimming function, to provide the required demand for plants at all stages from vegetables to flowering.

There are 4 holes on the top of each luminaire-the end plate is used to hang wires or chains appropriately to adapt to the hanging above the growing plants

How To Pick The Best Grow Light

A Word on Light Spectrum
This is the first thing I need to talk about since it’s definitely the most important one. Nothing else I talk about here will matter if you get a grow light which doesn’t emit light of the right spectrum and your plants will underperform.
Plants also require different types of light in different stages of development, so you’ll have to be careful about that as well.
Most budding plants and plants in the vegetative stage will require a lot of blue light and UV light. This is light of a wavelength between 400 and 500nm, ideally, and some ultraviolet light from 180 to 400nm.
On the other hand, plants in the flowering stage will require more red and infrared light, which is near the top of the spectrum. The light between 620 and 780nm is probably the best, though light slightly higher on the spectrum will also do well.
Most grow lights will list which type of light they emit in their product information so you can’t miss it if you just look carefully. If it’s not listed though, that’s a bad sign and the light is probably not effective, so steer clear of it.
The ideal thing you can do is to get a full-spectrum grow light where you can adjust the light spectrum to your liking, though that can be prohibitively expensive in certain cases.
As a stop-gap measure, some people will go for LED grow lights which feature both blue and red LED’s and can switch between the two instead of the whole spectrum.
It’s vitally important that you get a light which hits the required spectrums of light because that’s what will allow your plants to develop properly and maximize your yield.

Are Watts Important?
Some people might tell you that the wattage of your lights is unimportant — and it might be, in certain cases, but it does matter, especially with HID lighting.
In short, the more wattage a light has, the more powerful it is, and the more electricity it spends. However, wattage is not directly reflective of the power of the light or the electricity it spends.
It’s most reflective of this for HID lights, less so for LED and fluorescent ones which use less power while having similar brightness to HID lights which use more power.
Manufacturers also tend to use deceptive wording when describing the wattage of their lights.
Don’t look at the wattage stated in large numbers to figure out how strong a light is — look at the “actual power” or “actual wattage” which will be listed somewhere in the product description. This will give you a good gauge of its real power.

Watch the Coverage
The size of the grow lights you’re buying, and the coverage they can achieve based on their placement are things you have to consider since you need to be able to cover all of the plants that you’re growing in order to get as much yield as possible.
You also need to consider the shape of the light and how easy it is to adjust. Achieving optimal coverage is not always easy and can become more difficult to do as the plants grow. You’ll definitely have to adjust your grow lights from time to time.
LED lights are usually the most adjustable ones due to having more individual lights, which means that they can be arranged in some non-standard shapes.

5 Newbie Mistakes to Avoid When Using a Grow Light

No one’s perfect, and if you never used a grow light before, you shouldn’t expect to get it right on the first try. When I used my first grow light, I managed to blow it out in a matter of two days by using the wrong type of extension cord!
However, I learned a lot from making such beginner mistakes, and I’ll share that with you right here so you can avoid making them.

Mistake 1: Burning (Or Overheating) Your Plants
Light is good for plants, right? So, the more light they deliver, the better?
Well, not exactly. Food is good for you in general, but you shouldn’t keep eating 24/7 even if it’s the healthiest food in the world.
The same thing goes for plants.

Mistake 2: Insufficient Lighting
On the opposite end of the spectrum is another common mistake — not giving your plants enough light.
This usually happens to beginners right after they burn some of their plants, so they overcompensate and don’t give them enough light. It’s exactly what I did when I was starting out.
Do some research and find out what the optimal amount of lighting for your plants is and try to strive for that at all times.

Mistake 3: Wrong Light Spectrum
While plants will grow under almost any type of light, there are types of light they prefer, and that will make them grow faster.
For example, plants get the most benefit out of blue spectrum light while they’re in their vegetative state, and if you set your grow lights to emit red light, it’ll hinder their growth.
Always check out which type of light your plant prefers in certain stages and try to cater to its needs.

Mistake 4: Wrong Light Schedule
Just like us, plants have a biorhythm that’s largely based on the natural day-night cycle and veering away from that can be harmful to them.
Now, this doesn’t mean you need to look at the sun and set your grow lights based on that. However, it does mean that you’ll need to do some research and figure out exactly which light schedule will work best for your plants.
The light schedule will also change based on which stage your plants are in and how large they are, so make sure you keep up to date on that and make adjustments accordingly.

Mistake 5: Not Making Necessary Adjustments
One of the easiest beginner mistakes you can make is thinking that you can just take a set-it-and-forget-it approach to placing your grow lights.
Plants grow and, over time, you’ll have to make small or major adjustments to the placement of your grow lights, the color spectrum they use and their intensity if you want to get the optimal conditions for your plants.
This can be a tricky business, and it will take some time for you to learn what to do, but be sure that the worst thing you can do is to just do nothing at all after the initial set-up.

Conclusion

Investing in LED grow lights is a smart decision to make, especially if you see yourself taking on indoor gardening for a long time.

If well taken care of, the LED grow lights can last you more than five (5) years before they start showing signs of wear and tear.

While the cost might be a bit steep upfront, the returns you get from this investment pay for itself in no time.

Also in News