LED GROW LIGHTS : Grow lights for houseplants (PART 3)

Hi, as our apartment looks a little bit like a disco right now, I thought that I could make a video specifically on LED grow lights, so you know which one is the best for you and your plants. Before we start, I wanted to let you know that this video is part 3 of a series on grow lights, so if you want to learn more about this topic, I really recommend that you check out this link right here, where you will find all of the episodes. But now, let's get to LED grow lights. So what is an LED grow light? LED stands for light emitting diode, and the way that they work is when we supply an electric current to LED chips, which are these ones right here, the current goes through a semiconducting material, and that is the diode, which then will produce light. So as you can see, LED is a solid state lighting, which is different to other kinds of light bulbs that produce lighting using electrical filaments. The solid state lighting makes LED lights last longer, and make them a more efficient choice for lighting. LED lights also have a low heating output, which comes really useful when we are growing plants inside our homes. Now let's look at the options that you have when it comes to LED grow lights, and the factors that you should look at so you can pick the best one for you and your plants. As you may know, there are many options out there when it comes to LED grow lights, and there are some factors that I think we should consider when getting our light. Now for this video I'm going to share the factors that I consider when picking my LED grow light, and I'm going to show you examples of grow lights that I've used with my plants and I really like. The first thing that we should think about is color. So just to remember, plants use light to power photosynthesis, and photosynthesis is the process that plants use for the production of carbohydrates that then they will use to grow. So light is really important when it comes to plant growth. Now, related to the color of the light, the part of the light spectrum that has the most impact on plant growth and photosynthesis is called PAR. This stands for photosynthetic active radiation. So the more a light source emits light that falls into the PAR spectrum, the better this light will be for your plant's growth. Now as you can see we have many colors in the PAR spectrum, from blue to red, with yellow and green in between. Each of these colors of light will impact your plant differently. Although your plants can use all of the colors in the PAR spectrum for the production of carbohydrates, blue and red are the ones that will be used most efficiently by your plants. And this is where our first LED grow light option comes to mind, and this is the ones that come in blue and red. You can find different combinations of blue and red LED grow lights, and this mostly refers to the ratio. So you will have grow lights that have more blue than red and vice versa. You can also find grow lights that come just in red or just in blue. So if you want to go for this type of grow light, the way that you decide is by looking at your plants and what they need. Generally, blue light will help with foliage growth, so leaves, and also with seedlings. Whereas red light will generally help with flowering. So depending on the plant that you have and where she is in terms of her growth, you will decide which color to provide. If your plant is about to flower and needs some light, you may want to invest in a grow light that has more red than blue. And if you want to encourage foliage growth, you may want to invest in one that has more blue than red. Now, although these grow lights are very good for our plants, they have some disadvantages when it comes to indoor gardening. The first one is the color that they produce. So as you can see, my wall here looks blue and red and kind of purple. So if you don't like that for your house, you may want to go for another kind of LED grow light. Another thing that we should consider with these ones is that, as I said, these ones focus on blue and red color. And even though blue and red are the colors that are most efficiently used by our plants, they will be missing other colors in the light spectrum. So for example, orange has been proven to have an impact on the taste of basil. So depending on what plant you have and what are the things that you want to provide for her, you may want to consider other colors in the light. Which takes me to the other option in terms of color, and this is full spectrum LED grow light. So full spectrum LED grow lights will emit a percentage of all colors within the far spectrum, but the light will look white to the human eye. Now, the ratio of the colors of these full spectrum grow lights may also differ from light to light. So you will find full spectrum LED grow lights that fall more into the cooler side of the spectrum, so they will have percentages of all colors within the far spectrum, but will fall more under the bluish side of the spectrum. And then you will also find some other full spectrum LED grow lights that will have a little bit more of the red and warmer side of the spectrum. The light will still look white to the human eye, but make sure that you look at the spectrum that the light is providing. That way you make sure that you know exactly which colors you're providing for your plant. Some of the advantages that come with a full spectrum LED grow light is that they emit a light that is white and it is not so hard on the human eye. The second advantage of the full spectrum LED grow light is that you will get a percentage of all colors within the far spectrum, which is really great because you know that you're providing the blue and red that your plant needs, but also some other colors within the spectrum that will be useful for your plant's growth. Okay, let's talk about shape. In terms of shape and form you will see that you also have many many options. And this is because of where we have our plants. If you think about it, we have our plants all around the apartment in different areas, in different positions, in different places. So different shapes and forms will help you differently depending on your plant, how many you have, how you want to provide the light. So let's talk about some of these. First is an LED grow light that has a spotlight fixture. So as you can see I have two ferns right here, they need lots of light. And right on top, right there, I have a spotlight fixture light. This is a Soltech Solutions full spectrum LED grow light and it has proven to be super good for my plants. I really love it and another thing is that it looks so pretty. So let me just show you how it looks now. So this is a corner space of our bedroom where we read and things like that. And as you can see I have the two ferns right there and the spotlight fixture light right there. This means that this light is going to be pointing down and it basically focuses the light as you can see on the ferns. So the spotlight fixture grow light is going to be great if you want to focus light on one or two plants or just on a space, an area that is like really well defined. So as you can see here I also have a peace lily and I also have my hopefully healing Strelitzia here. So yeah, the light is being provided to all of these ones here and also these ones here. I also talk about Sansi full spectrum LED grow light as a spotlight fixture. This one is really good because you have the full spectrum and you can actually attach it to your lamps around the house and then just point your lamp towards where you have the plants. So you have a spotlight fixture and you can provide the light to a specific area. Grow lights can also come in the shape of a tube or a band like this one right here. This is the plant spectrum LED grow light. So this is the one that has a little bit more of a natural tone when it comes to the white that it produces. So it's really really nice. And another thing is the shape here. So you can either place this one on a table or a shelf just like this vertically and this is perfect when you have for example plants that are on the wall or just placed vertically someplace in your house. So you can just place the grow light like this and it's going to be the light is going to be directly at them in a vertical form. Another way that you can use this type of grow light is horizontally. So you can hang it from the ceiling and actually the company that produces the plant spectrum has all of the tools that you need to also hang it. It is super easy. So in this way if you have plants more on a horizontal kind of surface then this light can also be very good to just provide the light from above. The last form or shape that I can share with you that I use in my house with LED grow lights is the gooseneck LED lamp. This one can come with one or more grow lights for example this one right here it has four grow lights and it is very useful for me because it's very flexible so you can just move the light as it is best for your plants. As you can see here I use these four grow lights to illuminate three of my boxes right here and most of these lights come with a clipper like this one so you can clip it to your shelves or your table and then just accommodate the light as you wish. Which is also very useful you have many boxes like this and many plants around the boxes like here so yeah that one can be also a very good choice. Okay you guys so we talked about color shape now let's talk about the housing of the light which is very important when it comes to longevity and just the quality of your grow light. So why is the housing important? Let me explain. When you look at your LED grow light you will see the LED chips and on top of those LED chips you will see generally a phosphor layer. For white light this layer will be either orange or yellow. As we use our LED grow light the LED chip will become hot and if it becomes too hot this will cause the phosphor layer to melt and of course as you may know already this is not good for the longevity of your light. So we want some kind of material or structure that prevents the LED chips from becoming too hot and there are different ways that we can do this. One way is to add a blower or a fan but this will consume lots of energy. The other way to prevent our LED grow lights and specifically the LED chips from becoming too hot is passive cooling. And passive cooling can be done with the use of thermal conductive materials and this is when we start thinking about the housing of your lamp. The housing is basically this right here so what houses the actual grow light and it can be made out of different materials. Some lower quality LED grow lights will come with plastic housing. This is not the best material because it doesn't act as a cooling material. So what are some materials that can be good for the housing to prolong the life of our LED lights? For example the plant spectrum grow light right here the housing is made from aluminum which is great because this is a thermal conductive material which means that the aluminum is going to absorb the heat from my lamp and this will help me prevent the overheating of my LED board. Here we also have the sansi grow light and the housing for this one is also made out of thermal conductive material. This one is made out of ceramics which is also very good in terms of passive cooling. So always look at what materials the company uses for the housing of the grow light and this will tell you a little bit more about how long your light is gonna last. Now many of you have asked me whether we can use regular LED lights as grow lights for houseplants and this is a very good question. I can tell you the answer is yes and no. So if you want to learn more about this I made a video just answering that question and you can check it out over here. Also if you're watching this video as it just came out I have very exciting news for you. This coming Tuesday I'm launching my first course ever and this course is actually going to be on light for houseplants. So if you want to check it out I hope that you're there for the launch. The link is going to be in the description and yeah I hope that you join us over there too. And as always I will see you in the next one. Okay, ciao!