@Givemefire whether you have 9 feet of wire between your receptacle and the driver, or 9 feet of wire between the driver and led’s, you should be plenty good. Provided the wire is sized correctly for the load. 9 feet isn’t enough distance to worry about calculating voltage drop.
1 Like
Awesome. Today is build day. Manical laughing.
Thanks @dbrn32 and in a couple weeks, need $, I’m going to be asking about getting some cree stuff.
1 Like
If you can, take some pics to share with us. I’m sure there’s a lot of members that would love to see exactly what goes into a build.
1 Like
BEST LED GROW LIGHTS & REVIEWS
GROW MORE & MAKE MORE
BEST GROW LIGHT Show to Choose See All Reviews Ultimate GuideT5 Grow Lights
BEST GROW TENTS HOW TO GROW Grow Weed IndoorsLight Spectrum Fertilizing Marijuana Grow Books HPS LEGALIZATION NEWS
You are here: Home / Article / How to Choose the Best LED Grow Light
How to Choose the Best LED Grow Light
March 22, 2016 , Article, Growing Tips, Reviews

If you are new to indoor growing or looking for a buying guide to help you choose the best LED grow light, there are several important factors to consider when choosing LED grow lights and this buying guide will help you make a better buying decision.
Many horticultural growers in the modern world could benefit from using LED lights if they knew which grow lights would be best for them. However, not many of them know how to pick the best. For a full, comprehensive guide see our Ultimate Guide to help how to choose the best LED grow lights.
First, a simple definition: The acronym LED simply refers to Light Emitting Diode, which is a relatively small bulb of light. To produce adequate amount of light required for a given purpose, the diodes are used in great numbers, and in different colors. The latest generation lights use the more efficient COB (Chip on Board) LED technology. Horticulturalistsgenerally use LED lights for both personal and professional purposes.
The LED bulbs and LED COB modules used in the LED industry have long lives and are very efficient. Available in different colors, they provide an efficient and convenient alternative to natural light for indoor plants.
The lights are necessary to accelerate plant growth and aid in the photosynthesis process. As more people adopt the practice of indoor growth of plants, the use of light emitting diodes also continues to grow. With demand, technology evolves, improving the advantages already apparent in LED lights. Such advantages include the ability of the user to control the provision of light required by the plants. For that reason, it is advisable to choose the best LED grow light that you can find based on the type of plants you grow.
Many growers still do not know a proper method to apply when selecting the LED grow lights. Growers choose LED fixtures because they conserve energy and maximize production. Here are five points to observe when evaluating LED lights.
Choose LED fixtures with adjustable output spectrum
Given that the LED arrays these days often come with different color LEDs, you need a solution that allows you to manage the light output spectrum according to your choice of plants or seasons. For example, you can match the colors to flowering season, or to summer time. By varying the light output, you can simulate the seasonal light changes to suit the growing circle of the plant.
Select LED fixtures with high power cooling system that works
High power LED fixtures need cooling, just like computer CPUs. For that reason, you need a heat sink and a fan. Since the LED fixtures do not radiate any heat, they have a metal pad that provides the way for heat to leave the LED.
Look for fixtures that are mounted on a metal core printed circuit board (or MCPCB for short), which is a space-grade technology for electronics that operate at high temperature
The device is better than the normal device circuit board and you will need it for the high levels of power that your LEDs use.
Make sure your circuit board is mounted to a sizable heat sink, preferably one with several fins
With more fins, the circuit board is able to spread heat out faster to aid faster cooling. This is important to prevent failures caused by single fins, leading to overheating and damage to the LED fixture.
Consider LED fixtures with constant current driver circuit
When buying LED fixtures consider the electronic current circuit that powers your LED lights. The role of the electronic current circuit, or driver circuit as it is professionally known, is to convert AC power to direct current within the proper voltage and current level that the LED fixture can sustain. A proper LED circuit driver should supply a constant supply of direct current and regulate the intensity according to temperature changes.
The Benefits of LED Grow Lights
There are many benefits of using these lamps as compared to other types in the market. Their benefits can only be seen if we compare with what other lamps will produce as compared to the greater LEDs.
Space Saving Designs:
To begin with, they are regarded as space saving designs, given that other types of grow lights need a lot of space in the room and at the same time they will need more equipment to help them run smoothly. With LED lighting solutions, you can enjoy better space utilization as they are small and do not occupy a lot of your space in the grow room. There are no headaches associated with extra equipment to run the lights and you are able to move them freely as you change their position. Some lights are designed to be daisy chained together, thus eliminating extra cords.
Optimized Light Spectrum:
LED technology allows the fine tuning of light spectrum to produce the best light that plants need to develop throughout their stages of growth. The energy can be concentrated on certain frequency bands, and so you don’t waste energy producing light in the un-usable part of the spectrum. LEDs deliver the right kind of light power that plants need. With other lights, like HPS or MH, you don’t have the ability to fine tune the spectrum, it is what it is and that’s all you get.
Power & Energy Efficient:
The third benefit of this type of grow lights is that they are also general power efficient. They save you a lot of money by substantially reducing your electricity bills. Hence, they are reliable and are a good source of energy saving.
Long Lasting:
Another benefit of these lights is that they are long lasting. They have the ability of serving you for more than 50,000 hours of use to about 100,000 hours before dying out. Other lights only last for about 20,000 hours. They are known as low running temperature lights. They are the perfect and most reliable because they will not warm your grow room excessively, thus exposing placing your plants in an unconducive growing environment.
———————
Recommended Best LED Grow Light 2016
- Zeus Lighting LED Grow Light 250W – New!

This is our editor’s pick for the best led grow light in 2016, that is the Zeus Lighting LED Grow Light 250W. It is a nearly perfect plant grow light that has been designed to replace the 400 Watt MH/HPS light. It offers the best color spectrum ratio for maximum growth and high PAR value. Zeus indeed delivers a powerful bolt of LED lighting to make your plants grow and blossom.
We’ve actually been testing these lights in our own garden and have already seen fantastic results. They utilize 4 powerful 90W COB LED modules covering the spectrum from infra-reds to deep blues including UV. Each COB module is cooled with a patented heat sink and individual whisper-quite fan, which maintains the optimal temperature and avoids high heat as well as longer life. There are also 4 individual 5-Watt high power UV LEDs, which have a separate on/off switch. Your plants will love the UV, to stimulate growth. But you should switch off the UV to reduce UV exposure while tending your garden – what a great safety feature I haven’t seen in any other lights. Coverage is about 3ft x 3ft, but you can buy more lights you connect them together into a matrix of multiple lights using the included bracket. It is easy to connect them together with the included daisy chain power cord. Buy one today and buy more later as your operation grow. There is a 5-Year Manufacturer’s Warranty.
3Share
Tweet
Filed Under: Article, Growing Tips, Reviews Tagged With: best grow light, buying guide,how to choose
Trackbacks
How to Grow Weed Indoors Step by Step says:
April 8, 2016 at 1:24 pm
How to Choose
Reply
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked
Comment
Name
Email
Website
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
My Amazon Picks
Kind K5 XL1000 LED Grow Light w/ Ratch
$1695.00
California Lightworks Solarstorm 440
$899.00
Advanced Platinum Series P900 900w…
$949.00
Apollo Horticulture Full Spectrum 1200 Watt
$499.99
I hope this helps
Will
7 Likes
Hi Will, thanks for the post!
This was copied from something 15 months ago?
thank you will… that is a lot to read!!lol of coarse it is a critical part of a inside grow…lighting that is…
this is a good learning topic for me,i’ll be buying a quality light for my grow soon…
perfect sun has some great plug and play lights…lol i have really been digging trying to get the most bang for the buck…
1 Like
@dbrn32 ok so after some thought, I decided I would buy 4 Bridgelux vero29’s (gen &7), a driver to run all 4 (or do I need 2 drivers), thermal block/pad, and heatsinks. My question is this, what color should I be seeking when buying the vero29’s? I want to make these for veg, so obviously I want more blue than red, but I know full spectrum is good for plants, so what are your thoughts and recommendations here?
My reason for choosing the vero29’s is because they’re $15 cheaper, per chip, so with buying 4 I’m saving $60 than if I bought the CXB3590’s.
4 Likes
how about the cannabis colossal from ledfullspectrum,have you seen one? what do you guys think about it? @ktreez420 @dbrn32 @garrigan62
it looks awesome!!
@ktreez420
Good for you. You will be surprised how easy it is. As for the color spectrum 2700, 3000 have more red for blooming. there are also 3500, 4000, 5000 and I think 6500 all have more blue. So the lower the number the more red it has, and the higher the number more blue. So for veg you want more blue, so the higher spectrums will work. I’m not sure what is available for the Vero29
5 Likes
If you want to run them at 2100ma, 1 hlg-320h-c2100 will run 4. This driver comes in an a and b version. The a version has an internal dimming pot, the b version comes with a cable that can be uses to install a remote dimmer.
If you plan on mounting the driver to your cob fixture, the remote dimming function is nice but not necessary. If you plan on installing the driver outside of the grow tent anyway, the pot on the a version driver is fairly adequate.
As far as the color temp, I would go with 5000k if you’re absolutely sure this light will be limited to veg. If you’re not sure, then I would suggest 4000k. The 4000k still hits the peak in blue spectrum for veg growth, but it provides quite a bit more red than the 5000k. I’ll attach pic of color spectrum.
Also, if you’re going with the gen 7, the se line is pretty much the same thing but allows poke in connecting. So no soldering would be required.
1 Like
I think there are lights that are more efficient and have more efficacy for less money. The physical dimensions of this light are bigger than most, so it would create more coverage in a lage area, but with less performance. I base that comment solely on advertised performance, I have no experience with that light.
1 Like
@MAXHeadRoom you got it, good info. I try to equate it similar to choosing cfl spectrum. The only difference being that we typically get a few more options in between with white led.
I should note that even though it’s not included in the graph, bridgelux does have a few 3500k in the vero line. 3500k is the favorite among cree users for combination of veg abd flower out of a single light. The vero phosphor seems to produce a little more red at 3500k though, so probably not ideal for a veg light.
1 Like
I originally wanted the 4000 spectrum but by the time I decided to build the light they where all sold out. So I opted for the 3000 because that was what the HGL550 that I was trying to emulate had. Let me tell you people what a difference this light makes. Growth is unbelievable, root growth is amazing and I hope my yields will have same result. It was well worth the money I invested and the risk I took building this light. And now we have @dbrn32 to help us out too. Life is good
5 Likes
@MAXHeadRoom as your grow continues, can you keep us posted. One of the supposed downfalls of the mid power packages is weakness in the corners.
I haven’t done anything with the qb, but we are experiencing this a little with the strips. Nothing that we’re concerned with at this point. But I’m really liking the thought of throwing some cobs in the corner of our next strip build. Current one doesn’t really have room, so I’m on hold for a bit. But I’m really liking the idea of a hybrid, whether it be qb+cobs or strips+cobs. Hopefully as your grow goes on you can give me some feedback. Like if we’re talking a little more stretch or stunted growth.
3 Likes
Well I’d like to answer that question, but it would be heavily in my opinion. I will explain why I suggested the 5k or 4k though.
When we go back to talking about warm white (2700k) vs cold white (6500k) in cfl days, those were pretty much the only 2 options we had. One hit the McCree peak in red, the other in blue. Nowadays, we see more options in cfl, and even more so in led. So when you said veg light, I threw out 2 options that were at or very near the McCree peak in blue, but provided a little more red than the 6500k.
So you certainly could veg with a 6500k, but I don’t feel it’s necessary. For the type of money you’re investing, you could get more out of it. There are plenty of documented grows using the 4k from start to finish, without a ton of stretch in the veg phase. So you could essentially build a multi purpose light that hits the recommended amount of blue light for veg. But if you were absolutely sure you wouldn’t want or need the cob build for flower, then 5k would produce more blue and less red typically resulting in a little tighter node spacing. But I think if you were to cruise around some other cob builds, 6500k are kind of a thing of the past. The most typical use of them right now in cobs would be if you were mixing the 6500k with 2700k or 3000k to create a balanced spectrum.
4 Likes
My SCROG is 36 x 30 and my light is 30 x 24 so I only have a 3" without light on the long axis and 2" on short axis. With reflective Mylar I should be able to eliminate any light deficiency
3 Likes
I got you bud.
What I’m referring to wouldn’t really count as a deficiency per se, just where the lowest intensity of light is. Naturally, this will occur in any light. It’s no different than from having a single cob and measuring light at different distance from the center.
The mid power packages rely on strength in number of diodes. You have the greatest concentration of light at the center of each board. As you move closer to edge, the light intensity will drop. And then it will drop more so moving along any edge to a corner. I’m sure that there’s plenty of light in your grow. I was just asking for first hand experience as to whether you noticed any difference around the corners by the end of your grow. Sorry for any confusion.
@ktreez420 let me know if I’m talking Chinese about the color temp.
As far as the dimmer goes, no you don’t need one. But they can be damn nice to have. This light will be Hella bright, and the colder temp you go, the more painfully bright it will be. Like headjerk squint bright. The dimmer is great for simmering them down while making a lights on entry.
The dimmers also can help with light hardening plants. Instead of moving your fixture every so often, you can run the light lower and just increase the intensity. Like I said, you get dimming option with either series. One is built into the driver, you turn it with screwdriver. The b series just comes with a cable, and it’s up to you to install one of the three available dimming options. The cheapest of which is simply wiring or soldering in a 100k potentiometer.
1 Like