Indoor Plant Grow Lights: Who’s Better Among LED, CFL and HPS?

1. Brief Introduction

As an indoor grower, you will certainly be considering which plant grow light to choose for the best supplemental light for your plants.

Light is a key element in plant photosynthesis, and the right choice of plant grow lights will greatly enhance plant growth.

The choice will generally be made from these points: initial cost, post cost, spectrum, efficiency and return.

Let’s compare who has more advantages among LED, HPS and CFL?

2. LED, CFL, HPS

First of all, let’s get to know these three kinds of plant lights.

2.1. LED plant light (LED)

LED plant lights are much more complex to operate than older technologies: small diodes of doped semiconductor materials are energized with a constant current.

By exploiting the optical properties of the different materials, we can obtain different colors.

Despite the seemingly more complex operation, the technology has been able to gain a firm foothold in the market thanks to its high reliability, excellent efficiency and low cost.

LED plant lights do not contain toxic gases, so the most important thing is the environment.

Available in different sizes and wattages, LED plant lights have revolutionized the horticulture market by allowing the creation of increasingly efficient lighting solutions with an increasingly complex spectrum.

Some indoor LED plant light manufacturers have mistaken growers for victims of inappropriate marketing.

They peddle any color other than red or blue as useless and unusable for plants.

They present skeptical graphics that indicate that the green light is completely reflected by the leaves and that they offer the most effective product for you, but at the possible expense of the grower.

But LED plant lights have “almost twice the efficiency of traditional high-pressure sodium and CFL bulbs (up to 2.6umol/J), especially the full spectrum of LED plant lights.

The efficiency of the light source and the lack of infrared light makes most LED lights dissipate little to no heat, which helps control growth chamber temperatures and reduces pumping costs.

All of this will ensure that you get a bumper crop with less power.

The cost is certainly high, but the duration and efficiency of the system will give you more or less time to recoup your investment.

2.2. Fluorescent lights (CFL)

CFL fluorescent lights allow us to replace old incandescent bulbs that produce more heat than light.

The operation is similar in concept to HPS technology: the bulb consists of a high-pressure glass tube filled with mercury and rare gases and two electrodes that produce ultraviolet light powered by an electronic ballast.

The light then passes through a phosphor covering the glass tube, which is converted to white light.

These bulbs are also available in a variety of sizes and wattages and are widely used for professional and home growing due to their low thermal value.

The spectral quality is fair, but the system has many limitations: the light emitted is never too strong to bloom, and the electrical efficiency is lower than that of the HPS system.

CFL bulbs are still well suited to provide a low-power light source in the early plant and cloning stages, providing an easy-to-use, low-heat solution.

Plants can also be grown in contact with bulbs without burning.

These lights are inexpensive and have a long life (about 10,000 hours of light), and we this system is recommended for growers who need an economical solution to the plant growth stage.

2.3. High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights

High pressure sodium (HPS) lights are undoubtedly the most popular and extensively tested lights available for all types of cultivation.

These glass bulbs typically have wattages of 50 to 1000 watts and contain a pressurized gas that is ionized by two electrodes to produce photons.

High pressure sodium (HPS) lights produce a significant percentage of ultraviolet and infrared light (about 20%): these frequencies help mimic the solar spectrum, but are converted almost entirely to heat.

This requires a proper extraction system, and growers must be careful not to burn the growing foliage to the light, while excessive heat production can also result in additional costly payoffs.

On the other hand, the rich green and yellow spectrum allows the light produced by these special lights to penetrate the leaves in a way that is difficult to achieve with other systems.

That’s why they are usually installed on fixed height ceilings.

3. Consumption and cost

(1) High pressure sodium (HPS) lights have been around for a long time and work well, so there are many “loyal” growers who will not replace them with other products.

The initial cost of an HPS system with power supply and reflector is not high (about 150 Euros for a complete 600W kit), but HPS bulbs wear out quickly.

So after a few months the intensity will drop and there will be a replacement of its bulbs and later input costs will increase.

We recommend these systems for the occasional grower who wants to spend less money in the short term but still get satisfactory results, especially those living in colder regions.

Allowing excess heat will be an advantage rather than a drawback.

(2) LED plant grow lights by LED Master, LED lights product features (LED plant grow lights) can replace 3-5 times the power of traditional lights and save 80% of electricity.

LED as the light source, life span up to 50,000 hours.

The ratio of different lights can be specified by customers, we suggest the ratio of (red:blue) 8:1, 7:2 and 7:1:1, red.

A mixture of blue, orange, white and yellow light for plants.

LED wavelengths can be specified by the customer.

We recommend 620-630nm and 640-660nm for red wavelengths and 450-460nm and 460-470nm for blue wavelengths.

Red light helps plants to germinate and flower, while blue light helps plants to grow.

You can choose a more appropriate wavelength and color ratio to promote plant growth.

Ideal for all stages of plant growth lights, they are suitable for indoor gardens, aquatic plants or soil grown plants.

The area and height of the light will change accordingly to different plants and environment, and the technical parameters will also change.

All the material rings of the products meet the requirements of environmental protection and do not contain mercury and other harmful heavy metals.

High brightness, high reliability imported chip LED as the light source, high brightness, wide angle, uniform light.

DC12V low voltage drive, safe to use.

Low power consumption, long life, maintenance-free.

Different plants need different growth conditions, and the wavelength of light source required to participate in plant photosynthesis and influence germination and flowering will be different.

Therefore, the working wavelength of the product and the ratio of the light source components will be very different for different plants.

Can be customized according to user requirements, or the user to provide relevant information, we give the user to determine the composition of the light source.

Generally, red and blue light is the main component, and the ratio of red and blue light varies from 2:1 to 9:1.

Red light: promote photosynthesis of chlorophyll A and chlorophyll B, promote the formation of plant stems, stems and roots, leaf bulbs and other plants, and affect flowering and fruiting.

Blue light: Promotes plant photosynthesis, green leaf growth, protein synthesis, fruit formation, increase yield and shorten incubation period.

Customers can choose a more suitable wavelength and color ratio to promote plant growth according to the needs of your cultivated crops.