Different types of indoor grow lights

hey come in many shapes and sizes, from tiny led modules to gigantic 1000w air cooled monsters, but before you decide which type or size of grow light you use you need to be informed on the positives and negatives of these lights and which one would suit your needs.

The most popular type of grow light is high intensity discharge lighting (HID) and these come with a choice of lamp for you to install, The metal halide (MH) and the high pressure sodium vapour (HPS). Both of these lamps have their uses, the metal halide lamp gives off light that has a lot of blue spectrum light in the output making it ideal for growing plants in their vegative stage because a plant in veg loves blue light. High pressure sodium vapour lamps on the other hand have a lot more red in the spectral output making it an ideal lamp for growing plants in their flowering phase because a flowering plant can not get enough red light!

There are draw backs to HID lighting however, they do generate quite a bit of heat, in fact too much heat for your plants to grow at an optimum level but this can be overcome by use of an extraction system. An extraction system usually consists of a high powered in line duct fan ( the size of which is dictated by how many lights you are using and the size of your room) a carbon filter (to clear extracted air of any pollutants) aluminium ducting and some clips. The extraction system pulls hot air away from your light and takes it away from your growing area/plants cooling it down to acceptable levels.

High intensity discharge lighting comes in several power choices usually 250w, 400w, 600w and 1000w versions. The most optimum choice of these is the 600w, having the most lumens per watt it is definately the best value for your money with a typical 600w sodium lamp giving out nearly 90,000 lumuns.

Switching these grow lights on and off can also throw up a few problems. Standard timers are not capable of doing this and will end up stuck in the on position leaving lights on all day which is no good. Specialist timers and contactors must be used in order to maintain a reliable lighting regime.

All in all the HID is still the best lighting option available on the market today, they are highly efficient grow lights that are fairly priced and do not cost too much to run either with a 600w costing around £6 a week to run depending on lighting schedule so what are you waiting for get one in your loft today!

The technology in grow lights is changing as even HID ballasts are even going digital and LED grow lights are gaining a lot more attention from the indoor grower.Why is this ?
because of the recent advancements with led grow lights they are now brighter,longer lasting and a lot cheaper than they used to be. LED lighting allows you to place the light much
closer to your canopy as they do not produce any where near as much heat off the lamp as HID grow lighting.Now dont think you can get away with out using a fan and filter
as heat is still produced and could affect your end results if sufficient extraction is not in place

As with hid lighting there are different colours in LED lighting that should be used at the right stages of your plants growth cycle. more blue should be used
when your plants are in their growth cycle and red, orange in the flowering cycle.
Early LED grow lights used hundreds of fractional-watt LEDs and these were often not bright enough or efficient enough to even begin to be thought as effective replacements for HID lights.
Now the newer LED grow lights on the market use high-brightness multiple-watt LEDs that are increasing the power consumption resulting in increased effectiveness of the technology
leading to similar growing results to HID lights.

LED still cost more to buy than HID lighting but do cost that bit less when it comes to the running of the light.With that bit of money saving over the life
time of the light makes them a sound choice that is why more and more people are giving LED lighting a chance to bring down running costs without
losing quality or yields, using LED grow lights could be what we all end up using to grow indoors as the technology gets even better.

LEDs for me look pretty good when they are on because of all the nice brightly coloured lights but most of the people i have spoken to that have used them never said
that they were getting the same quality or similar yields to that of HID grow lights. I think that LED grow still need to be improved on a bit before i would stop using
my trusty HID lighting.

If your growing plants indoors one thing you are definatley going to need is a grow light and HID grow lights are the way to go at the moment because in my opinion other lighting technologies
will not get you the results of HID lighting. Hid grow lights offer much higher light intensity in both blue and red spectrums giving you total control of each
growth stage of your plants life cycle. The best way to achieve this is by using two different types of lamp the first being matel halide for your vegetative
growth stage and high pressure sodium for your flowering stage both of which are available in 250 watt upto 1000 watt.

Metal halide lamps are the best lamps for the vegetative stage of your plants life as there is alot of blue in the specteral output these lamps should be
used throughout the veg cycle when lighting is 18 on and 6 off. Doing this will encourage strong growth in your plants leading to more flowering sites and
increased plant health. Once you are happy with your plants growth and are ready to turn your plants to the flowering cycle when lighting is 12 on 12 off,
you should stay with your matel halide lamps for a week as this will stop them streching out too much. Now i would advise to swop over from your matel halide
lamps for the high pressure sodium lamps.

High pressure sodium lamps are your best choice for the flowering stage of your plants cycle. The light output from these lamps contains alot of red in the
spectural output which a flowering plant can not get enough of. The hps lamp can be used from start to finish though, and there are alot of dual spectrum
hps lamps on the market with enough blue and red in them to give you a great harvest

The cost of buying hid grow lights can vary greatly depending on the wattage and make e.t.c. In my opinion and experience you should look for quality lighting products as
grow lights have been known to cause fires, I would go for a ballast that has metal casing/housing rather than the plastic compact style models. The compact
style ballast does get very hot to the touch because the plastic is used as a heat sink from the control gear inside wich i think is a bit silly. In metal cased ballasts
the control gear is kept seperate to the housing allowing air to flow around all components leading to longer product life.

The cost of running hid grow lights tends to be more than the other plant grow light options available such as the cfl. This is because they are a higher watt rating
to these other options and electricity is charged by the kilowatt hour. Do not let this put you off! yoe get what you pay for in life
and i think the trade off is well worth it.

I would recommend using a strong jack chain or a specific light hanging product to hang hid indoor grow lights as the reflectors do get very hot and you woundnt want one falling down believe me so no string!!

When using HID grow lightsyou need a ballast to ignite the lamp, the ballast sould be kept out of your grow room as they generate alot of heat and this could effect the final results that you achieve.They should also be kept off of any floor coverings because this may be a fire hazzard, this is especially important if you are using one of the many compact ballast on the market. I would advise anyone to mount all lighting ballasts off the ground so that air can get all around the ballast to help keep them running cooler. By doing this you help reduce the risk of fire and over heating of the ballsts components and there for prolong the life of your equipment. Something that could also help keep your ballasts running that bit cooler its to place an osalating fan that will push air around the ballast.
  Make sure you keep an eye on all lighting equipment because if it goes wrong you could end up loosing all of your hard work you have put in killing your crop with your lights failing due to over heating.

CFL Eco-Lights are market leading high powered compact fluorescent grow lamps that can be used as either your primary grow light or as a supplementary light to your main grow light. They are available in both blue and red spectrums for vegetative and flowering growth. They are not as productive as high intensity lights but are cheaper to buy and cheaper to run. No separate ballast is required for these lights, they simply screw into a standard e40 grow light fitting and run directly through a mains plug. I would recomend that if using as a primary grow light that you go for the mirrored CFL reflector and not just the standard euro or dutch barn.