Whether you are a passionate gardener or commercial grower, size of your electricity bill plays a vital role to carry on your passion and make the business profitable respectively.
You must have heard that LED grow light are more efficient and can save up to 75% energy than traditional grow lights like Fluorescent and HPS. To know more about reality behind these claims and find out why LED grow lights use less electricity than their traditional counterparts, we have mentioned all factors in details below:
HID Vs LED Grow Lights
Most viable way to measure the efficiency of lightning system is by calculating the quantity of visible lights produced in lumens against the power in watts. By this method of efficiency HIDs are more efficient as compared to LEDs. However, there are other factors as well that affect the cost of electricity for commercial growers:
- Loss of light:
The Light emitted from LEDs focused in one direction. It means that LED grow light doesn’t require extra equipment to focus its lights in different wavelengths and spectrums on plants, and vegetables. However, HID bulbs require reflectors or hoods to direct the light toward plants, which reduces efficiency due to trapped light.
It is the process that regulates the current and offer sufficient voltage to start HID bulbs. The loss of efficiency of these bulbs depends on the quality and age of ballasts. The loss can be small or large, but it is never insignificant. On the other hand, LED Grow lights can be plugged directly into the socket without using Electrical ballast that reduces the energy losses and increase the efficiency.
- Ventilation or Cooling System
HID grow light system requires extra ventilation and cooling system to eradicate the excess heat produced by each bulb installed in the whole setup. Ventilation means need of extra exhaust fans that results in additional electricity cost. LED grow lights does not require cooling as most models have built in cooling system with fans that consume way less power.
- Lifespan of LED Grow Lights
LED lights are famous for their long-life span as much as 90% more effective than HID light bulbs because they have no working parts that will burn out due to excess heat or break over time. So, they will last a lot longer as compared to traditional grow lights.
Conclusion
LED Grow lights have multiple advantages over HID grow light when it comes to overall consumption of electricity and short answer to question “Do LED Grow Light Use Less Electricity?” is “Yes” they do. Apart from this, durability and low running costs of LEDs increase the savings in wider prospective. The heating bills will also go down without worrying about replacing the bulbs all time.
Although initial cost of LEDs are more than HID grow lights, but if we compared their benefits like durability, energy savings and longer life span, it makes them a fruitful investment.
Hands down, pennies on the dollar compared to other options!
alot less energy used