Replacing HID Lighting with LEDGrowLights
What are the advantages of an LEDGrowLight™ ?
LEDGrowLight™ will:
* Deliver high intensity light in a confined space
* Be safe for plants that are sensitive to heat or UV radiation
* Reduce heat output
* Allow multi-tier gardening
* Use areas where space or ventilation restricts the use of HID lights
* Reduce of power consumption
* Eliminate noise and high voltage generated by HID ballasts
How many LEDGrowLights do I need to replace my metal halide lights?
Why do HID lights look so bright?
LEDGrowLights provide a higher fraction of light in the peak areas of the spectrum of chlorophyll absorption. You should use enough LED lighting to produce 30% of the lux or ft-cd levels produced by metal halide lights, or 25-35% of the wattage per square foot you are using for MH lighting. A general guideline, where we were using our 2nd generation bulb, is one R180XB red light per square foot, plus blue lights as required. See the growth comparison.
LED v. HID: Vegetative Growth Comparison
The following test results illustrate the type of growth rates obtained with LEDGrowLights. Results are 23 days after germination. Test plant is Argentine bahiagrass (Paspalum Notatum).
Using LEDGrowLights with HID lighting
If you are currently using HIDs for high-light, yield intensive applications, supplemental lighting with LEDGrowLights can give you an extra boost of growing power with a very small increase in wattage and negligible increase in heat. Start by adding 10-20 watts of LEDs for each 100 watts of HID lighting.
Alternatively, reduce your HID wattage by 100 watts and replace with 25 watts of LEDGrowLights. This will reduce both your power consumption and heat output.
Why do HID lights look so bright?
The human eye is very sensitive to light in the yellow and green regions (500-600 nm). HID lights produce a large amount of yellow and green light, so they look very bright indeed to the human eye. The following chart shows the relative spectral intensity of LEDGrowLights and a typical HID-MH grow light, together with the human eye response curve. LEDGrowLights have much less energy in the yellow-green area, so they do not look nearly as bright to your eyes as HID lights.



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Information provided courtesy of LGL Technologies, Inc.
Some of our tests and graphs are with our 1st generation blue led and 2nd generation red led bulbs, unless noted. They have been improved and replaced with our current bulbs. (refer to products*store)