LED grow lights put off less heat than HPS

 

According to LED grow light manufacturers their lights put off 90% less heat than HPS lights. This is one of the biggest selling points of LED lights. Anyone who has grown indoors in certain parts of the country during certain seasons knows that heat can be a major issue for a garden. Perhaps if you are an indoor grower in Alaska heat is not a concern, but I know that in my garage it gets very warm from the end of the spring through the summer. In the peak of the summer there’s simply no way to have a garden in my garage because it’s too hot, lights or no lights. That’s a big reason why I have been giving strong consideration to LED lights. They could give me a longer season, and cut back on AC requirements, which can be a huge energy hog and leads me to my next point.

 

 

 

LED grow lights consume less energy than HPS

 

Another big selling point for LED lights is that they use less electricity. The obvious counter argument to that is that more LED lights are required in order to match the output of HPS lights. I guess the devil is in the mathematical details on that one. With LED lights getting stronger per watt over time, this part of the debate is swinging more and more in LED lights’ favor. Some LED companies will swear that their lights can match the output of a 1000 watt HPS at a significantly reduced wattage, but whether or not that is actually true is always tough to say. After all, they are selling something.

 

 

 

But I do think that there may be some validity to the argument that, overall, the overall output of ‘X’ amount of LED wattage can match 1000 watts of HPS output, and that ‘X’ is less than 1000. When you combine the savings from the light energy usage itself AND the savings from not needing to run the AC as much (if at all), the argument in favor of LED becomes even stronger.

 

In summary, whether or not an LED grow light is better than an HPS one involves a lot of factors. The debate will likely rage on for years to come, with LED growers offering up math that shows they are right, and HPS growers offering up math that says they are right, and both sides claiming that the other one is fudging the numbers. With cannabis strains and environmental factors being varied across the world, it makes matters that much harder to pin down.