LED Grow Light Reviews – What Are The Benefits?
Indoor gardens have become a rising trend among homeowners, particularly for people dwelling in urban areas. Since modern apartments are gradually replacing the comfort of houses, most homeowners are prevented from having an outdoor garden. Nevertheless, nothing impedes you from transforming a room corner into your own indoor garden. In case you’re concerned about sunlight, there are special grow lights that you can use as a source of brightness and heat. Despite the huge variety of such lighting systems, LED grow bulbs are considered to be the most energy-efficient, cost-effective, and highly durable alternative.
These products enable homeowners to cultivate healthy plants while protecting the environment. Get familiar with the most important benefits of using such devices to improve your indoor gardening hobby.
Fast harvest cycle
Sunlight is an essential aspect of plant growth, which dictates the behavior of plants when being cultivated outdoors. Anyhow, crops aren’t provided with incessant sunlight, as the sun is bound to set towards the end of the day. Since their cultivation is dependent on sunlight, plants are prevented from growing during the night.
Investing in a hydroponic system is a convenient way to help plants thrive, regardless of seasons or climate. These systems are used to help plants grow without soil. By using a special hydroponic light system, the amount of natural sunlight is supplemented to provide the optimal growing environment for plant growth. A faster harvest cycle is one of the greatest advantages of hydroponics, as larger yields can be achieved in a much shorter time frame compared to traditional farming methods.
Unlike the sun, LED grow lights are capable of providing light for twenty-four hours daily, thus accelerating the cultivation of your plants. Indoor gardening makes you in charge of the crops’ growth, not the environment. As a result, plants will be provided with light during both the day and night, which leads to several harvests in a single season.
Better lifespan
Perhaps the greatest benefit of LED grow lights is their excellent lifespan, which is significantly longer than the lifetime of HID, plasma, or fluorescent lamps. Since LED devices don’t need a high temperature to operate efficiently, they produce much less heat than the other variants. Heat is considered to be the main culprit for reducing the lifetime of lighting systems, thus enabling LED systems to last much longer than the traditional ones. Furthermore, these grow lights can be operational for more than 50,000 hours, requiring no frequent replacement. You won’t have to spend money on new bulbs or worry about maintenance for years. Unlike the other bulbs, LED grow lights warn you before they stop working by gradually reducing the brightness, thus providing you with enough time to purchase new ones for replacement.
Greater energy-efficiency
Another incredible benefit of using LED grow lights is being more energy-efficient than the standard lighting systems. These devices are capable of producing an identical amount of light like HID bulbs, but they consume significantly less energy, even up to 60 percent. Moreover, light-emitting diodes emit light through the process of electroluminescence, thus generating less heat. Owing to the incredibly low heat production, your energy bills will be lower as well. Additionally, the reduced production of heat is also beneficial for the plants, as being exposed to a great amount of heat can be detrimental for their growth. Click here to learn more about the types and applications of light-emitting diodes.
Easy to control
LED grow lights enable users to control their spectrum, intensity, and timing in order to improve the process of growing crops. These bulbs come in a variety of colors, such as red, blue, and white, unlike the conventional bulbs that are solely available in a single color. You’ll be able to adjust the spectrum in accordance with the cultivation stage by using different color combinations. In addition, these lighting systems also allow gardeners to control the intensity of brightness, as not all bulbs need to use full intensity. Therefore, you could dim those bulbs whose color isn’t beneficial for a particular stage of the growing process. By using the timing feature, gardeners can come up with a schedule for spectrum and intensity that change each hour. You’re only supposed to program these features and the system will function in accordance with your preferences.
Cultivate healthy plants
In spite of people’s skepticism towards indoor gardening, LED grow lights can genuinely help you to cultivate healthy plants. Traditional HID bulbs are known for emitting UV rays that cause damage to crops, thus requiring a great amount of water and energy to stay alive. Due to their high levels of heat production, plants are also prone to drying up. Conversely, LED grow bulbs are believed to be a much safer alternative since these fixtures emit no ultraviolet rays that harm crops. Consequently, you won’t have to use plenty of energy and water so as to keep them alive.
Protect the environment
Another amazing benefit of using LED grow bulbs is being environmentally friendly, which isn’t the case with the HID bulbs. The former contain no toxic substances that are likely to pollute the environment. Also, these’re completely recyclable, which even further benefits the ecosystem. On the other hand, the latter contain mercury, which is considered to be extremely damaging to the environment. Since HID bulbs cannot be recycled, they need to be disposed of safely to prevent the release of carcinogens.
Low HVAC costs
Air conditioning systems are an indispensable aspect of grow rooms, as crops need proper ventilation for normal growth. Since LED lighting systems employ less energy for producing light, these automatically reduce the HVAC costs as well. It’s believed that replacing HID bulbs for these energy-efficient fixtures can reduce the HVAC costs of gardeners up to fifty percent. Additionally, HVAC costs are usually determined by the size of the space that you use for cultivating crops. Naturally, large spaces require more air conditioning than small-sized rooms when using some of the traditional lighting systems. However, by installing a LED lighting system, you won’t need as much air conditioning as in the past. Small rooms might not even need air conditioning at all owing to the low temperature.
Wrap up
Having an indoor garden is feasible with the help of LED grow lighting systems. Don’t give up on your dream!