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LEDs - Making your Investment Worthwhile
LED grow lights are flooding the market with the promise of saving energy, enhancing the growth cycle and glowing for years. Here's how to choose the best LED indoor grow lights and make your investment worthwhile.
What to look for when buying LED grow lights
I'm sure you've noticed that LED grow lights are not cheap—and if they are, you need to know why. An educated consumer ends up with the best value for their dollars spent. The LED grow light market is filled with manufacturers churning out plastic models that are inefficiently designed in order to lower costs. The consumer buys an LED light with no ventilation that burns out in five months,just when the warranty expires—perfect. In order to prevent this frustrating scenario, you need to know who you are buying from and develop trust in the company before purchasing their LEDs.
LED bulbs
LED bulbs (or chips) are the most important components of your new light. Cree, Bridgelux and Semiled are the world's leading providers of high- performance LED chips. Can't find this information on an LED grow light manufacturer's website? Simply ask your retailer who manufactures their chips; this will ensure that your lights are bright, efficient and long lasting. Some manufacturers keep costs down by using poorly designed plastic LED chips, and I can assure you these will not provide optimum illumination and will die
very quickly.
Power supply
Small, precious LED chips need protection from their power supply, so specially designed circuits protect the chips even in the event of a power failure. Ask your potential supplier what their power supply failure rate is—a safe design will be under five per cent. If your power supply fails and the chips are protected, you can easily replace the power supply for under $10. After all, your LED chips are meant to last 50,000 hours, and in most cases the power supply will die before that.
Heat dissipation
At this point you are beginning to see a trend—you really have to care for that little chip. After all, it's pumping out the light that grows your crop. LED chips are very sensitive to heat, and if the design of the chip and the material used allows heat to build up, the light will burn out very quickly. The chip needs to breathe—it needs air circulation. A heat sink base houses the chips internally, and while some manufacturers use thin pieces of flat aluminum board or plastic to increase surface area, this configuration does not allow heat to dissipate, and in this situation the chip will overheat and die in about four to six months. A solid lighting fixture, on the other hand, will use a cast metal heat sink with fins or a column structure to ensure the chips have proper airflow. Better heat flow equals peak performance—and a longer lifespan.
Wavelength
Lower efficiency ratings on HID bulbs stem from the fact that their light wavelengths are not directed 100 per cent onto the subject—instead, they emit their light at a full 360 degrees. The beauty of LEDs is their direct wavelength—there is no wasted light bouncing off the top of the housing and reflecting back, or spreading out in other directions away from where the growth is happening. Your LEDs should boast a strong, direct wavelength with a chip housing designed to reflect directly onto wherever you position it, thus ensuring the output is being used efficiently and is keeping your plants as strongly illuminated
as possible.
Warranty
Find a company who can give you a reliable guarantee on their product. With a big initial investment, you want to be covered in case of any defect and ensure the lights are actually saving you money on energy. If the new LED lights you're considering aren't very good, the supplier will probably not be willing to offer you a substantial warranty, because low-quality LED lights deteriorate very quickly.
Some foreign factories state they offer warranties to US customers, but even if the warranties are legitimate, the logistics of returning the defective items overseas can be extremely difficult if they don't have a branch in the US. If your lights stop working, you would have to ship the lights back overseas, wait a very long time for a diagnostic—and then who knows if you will ever see the light again? Check out companies that offer at least a two year warranty and a return process online for you to check out. If you're feeling like a real social animal, you might also want to call them and talk to a customer service rep to get some answers.
Company location, information and a live contact
If a company does not freely offer contact information such as a phone number, address or a contact person, stay away. Some will just display an e-mail address. Be extremely wary with these companies. Whether they offer great prices or not, you'll want to avoid getting scammed by sellers overseas looking to make a quick buck.
Price
Some companies boast super-low prices on their LEDs—you need to think about what materials they are using in order to keep the prices so low and still be a profitable business. Investigate, and look for the key qualities we've discussed.
LEDs are the future for indoor growers who are serious about consuming less energy to produce higher crop yields of strong, healthy plants. Replace those lights that make your meter spin like crazy now, and invest in LEDs that'll save you energy, time and money—but first be sure to do your homework. Follow these guidelines and find a reputable company that uses state-of-the-art technology and the best materials available to produce the high-quality LED fixtures you'll need to achieve your best crop.