From the beginning, what is an LED grow light, why to choose an LED grow light, to what is a high-quality LED grow light. People started to understand it from not knowing it, which shows that LED grow lights have been recognized and recognized by people. However, if you want to know more about LED grow lights, you can pay attention to the following 5 points.
LED grow light chip quality
High-quality LED chip manufacturing comes at a price. Each diode must be manufactured to exact specifications to emit the correct wavelength and maintain its integrity over time. "Light-emitting diodes are made of special semiconductor compounds that are all mixed together in different proportions to produce different wavelengths of color.
Something to note about the quality of LED grow light chips: There are some reputable manufacturers who use complex technical processes to ensure that the diodes they produce emit the correct wavelength of light and are highly durable electronic components. However, there are also a large number of cheaply produced LED chips designed to attract budget-conscious consumers, who may not be aware of the differences in LED chip quality. Cheap LED chips may or may not emit the wavelengths our plants need, and the intensity of the emitted light will also change wavelength and/or decrease over time.
In all types of lamps, the amount of light emitted (measured in lumens or PAR photon irradiance) decreases with use. The output of traditional incandescent bulbs decays much faster than LED grow lights. LED grow lights can maintain 70% of their initial output for 50,000 hours or more, depending on operating conditions and other factors.
LED grow light wavelength
When purchasing an LED grow light, the wavelength it emits is crucial. We know that plants need or must include the blue and red of the entire PAR spectrum. If an LED grow light manufacturer claims that they provide the perfect spectrum for your plants, be aware that not all LED grow light manufacturers have the ability to achieve a perfect spectrum, and most manufacturers use this excuse to sell their products. own products. The wavelength of LED plant lights requires the full PAR spectrum, focusing on blue and red wavelengths, which can allow plants to thrive both during growth and flowering.
LED grow light watts
The light output of an LED grow light is not just a function of watt input. It depends on the quality of its components and overall design, including the specific LED chips used, chip density, optics used, heat sinks and drivers. As power increases, LED efficiency decreases because the increase in temperature of the electronic circuit board containing the LED causes the LED efficiency to decrease significantly. In other words, an LED driven at 3 watts emits about three times less light than the same LED driven at 1 watt!
If an LED grow light manufacturer brags about wattage as a measure of the quality of their product, be skeptical. Before the standard was adopted, we judged how much power we needed for LED grow lights based on our planting area and plants. We consulted multiple manufacturers about the same power but different prices, and finally compared and selected the appropriate power.
LED plant light intensity
If you have access to a light meter that measures lumens, lux, or PAR, try taking measurements at various distances from any type of light source. You will soon notice that as you move the meter further away from the light source, the light intensity decreases rapidly.
This relationship between light intensity (output) and distance from the light source is well understood as a law of physics, and every grow light behaves the same in light intensity.
This is important to understand when comparing different LED grow lights. What you can easily find when comparing lights is that high-quality LED grow lights will often boast about how close the plants are to the light source. This is one of the reasons why LED plant lights are changing modern agriculture. Sufficient light intensity and light source distance adjustment can meet the needs of plant growth.
Light intensity is one of the most important measurements when comparing grow lights. More light intensity is only better up to a point. But be aware that too much light intensity will burn plant tissue, so the distance between the light sources should be adjusted appropriately.
Lumens, PAR and Lux
Lumens are a unit of measurement used to describe the total amount of light in the visible spectrum emitted from a light source. But the most important thing isn’t how much light an LED grow light can emit—it’s important to know how much light will actually reach your plants. Illuminance is a measure of the amount of light reaching a surface, defined as lumens or lux per square meter. Lux is a human eye measurement and is not recommended for plant applications - although conversion factors can be used to convert it to micromoles.
The key lies in the difference between the way humans perceive light intensity (measured in lumens) and the way plants absorb and utilize light. This difference is why we really have to use different types of meters to measure the light output of LED grow lights. PAR Photon Irradiance (often shortened to PAR) is the measurement that gives us the most useful information for comparing LED grow lights. The recommended unit of measurement for PAR is µmol m -2 s -1.
A high-quality LED grow light will provide you with measured information about the wavelength distribution of light emitted, the size of the intended illuminated area, and the energy available for plant-level photosynthesis (PAR Photon Irradiance). The most accurate instrument for measuring light output is a spectroradiometer, and some LED grow lights include a plot of emission wavelengths measured by a spectroradiometer in their specifications. Spectrometers are very expensive instruments and are rarely used by lamp manufacturers who lack plant biologists to understand their value.
From the above five points, I believe that understanding of LED plant lights can help you make the right choice when choosing high-quality LED plant lights. LED plant lights can give plants the best supplementary light effect and make important contributions to the development of modern agriculture. contribution.
