I am growing one plant and need some help with lighting. I would prefer to used led because of the low heat signature and low electric consumption. Can you give me a couple of brand names that you like. I dont want to go big guns I only need it for one plan at a time but want give it good light.
Thanks
Clayton
It would help if you gave us the size, the dimensions of the area you plan on growing in, width, depth, and height.
Generally you want about 50 actual watts per square foot for the plant’s canopy that needs to be covered, this is the number generally used for HID grow lights. Incandescent lights are extremely inefficient and would need likely way more watts per square foot. With high output T5s or CFLs, you can get away with less watts, say 40-45 watts per square foot, or maybe even less with the high output “specifically made for growing” T5 lights. And with a good LED it can be about 30-35 watts per square foot. Part of the reason you can use less watts with these other lights is you can get them closer to the plants as they don’t put out as much heat as HID lights do, and the intensity of lumens or PAR dramatically increases the closer you can get the light.
Again, this is actual watts, not necessarily the “label watts” of a LED that is called a 300 watt LED because it has 100 “three watt” LED diodes in it. This light would actually only use about half the watts and therefor actually only be a 150 watt LED. And in florescent lights, again it is not the “equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent light” but actually only uses 12 to maybe 15 actual watts of electricity, and these are the real watt numbers you use when building or buying a light for your area.
You can see some LEDs here:
http://shop.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/collections/grow-equipment/products/led-grow-lights
Hope this helps,
MacG