LED Grow Lights:

LED grow lights are favored by some indoor gardeners because of their specific benefits. These types of grow lights have advantages over HID grow lights which is why they are sometimes preferred. Similar to all indoor grow lights, LEDs allow indoor gardeners to grow plants without sunlight. Plant growth can even be controlled by the intensity and spectrum of the light, not just any light will do!

One major benefit of LED grow lights is that they are much less expensive than standard HID lighting systems like metal halide and high pressure sodium grow lights. That is because about 90% of the electricity used to power HID lights is wasted as heat instead of producing light. Anyone who has ever used HID lighting systems know that they run hot, and require good ventilation, and sometimes cooling systems as well. This obviously requires more electricity, which means higher electricity bills for the gardener. LED grow lights operate at much lower temperatures, so no additional ventilation or cooling is needed. Also, since they run cooler, LED lights can be placed very close to plants without danger of burning them.

LED grow lights are also much more efficient than HID lighting systems, and it is common for LED lights to have up to a 95% efficiency rating. This means that most of the light produced is in the correct spectrum so more of the light is absorbed by the plants and used in photosynthesis and growth. HID lights, by comparison, have a much lower efficiency rating and produce a lot of light in the green and yellow spectrum which is not absorbed by plants.

The bottom line is LED grow lights produce more light in the correct spectrum which promotes optimal growth and development in plants, and they do it by running cooler and using less electricity than comparable HID lighting systems.