How choose the best grow light ?

The Chip

You always want to look for chips that are at least 3W, any less than that won’t give

your plants enough consistent light coverage. This means each chip needs to be 3W,

not 3 lights of 1W LEDS, so look out for that when reading the description. The 3W

chip offers the best quality in whites, blues and reds.

The Output

This is also important; you want to read product descriptions for total output. How

many units does the lamp claim to have? This can be 300W, 400, 600 or even 1000.

Always check for the output and look for at least 300W.

Understand that when it comes to LEDs you can’t always get 100% power so you

usually end up with slightly less wattage than what the recommended is, and chips

will always burn out, no matter what the quality, so the higher a wattage the more you

can compensate for wattage loss.

The Spectrum

Remember that it is the red blues, IR and UV that also counts when growing your

marijuana crop, so you want to stick to the ideal PAR values. Look for blues that have

a range from 440-470nm, with rends in the 640 to 660nm.

Cooling Aspects

These lamps stay on for the better part of the day, often 15 hours at a time, so you

want to make sure they have internal fans that protect the lamp but also those that

protect the plants. If it gets too hot in there you could damage your plants.

LED lights run cooler than HPS bulbs as they only let off about 15 to 25 % of the

energy as heat, but the heat occurs behind the bulb in LEDS, and that area needs to be

protected. A good quality lamp will have a thick aluminum heat sink attached to the

back exterior or interior area which forces the heat away from the chips.

The Lens

Good quality lamps will have an optical lens that magnifies the light giving about 25%

more penetration of nutrients for the plants. This makes for a more expensive lamp

but certainly worth the price.

Materials

The LEDs should have a warranty, preferably one of 5 to 10 years. In fact, LEDs of

this nature are supposed to have a life span of about 10 years, especially in some of

the more expensive panels. Look for panels that are sturdily built with aluminum,

steel or materials that won’t easily break.

The Guarantee

Look for lamps with more than a one year guarantee, as I mentioned before, LEDs are

made to last up to 10 years, so I am somewhat suspicious of manufacturers who only

offer a one year guarantee, as this is an indication of a cheaply made housing or

cabling system. I usually look for a 3 year guarantee on parts.

The parts guarantee is better anyway because the lamp will continue to work

regardless of the part that needs replacing. You can easily replace the missing part

yourself when it arrives, and in the meantime your plants still get the nutrients they

need.