When it comes to purchasing LED grow lights, we at ProSource
Worldwide know you have a plethora of choices available from many different
sellers, all of whom claim that their products are the best available. While LED
grow lights are definitely more power-efficient than the old generation of High-Pressure
Sodium and Metal Halide bulbs, and will considerably lower your electricity bill,
all LED grow lamps are not standardized and do not represent equal performance.There are literally unlimited variables of
wavelengths and ratios that can be employed into a light design, as well as the
LEDs themselves and how they are powered.
ProSource Worldwide wants you to know these facts before you
decide:
Some manufacturers claim that their lamps are the brightest,
and offer their specifications in lumens. A lumen, however, is a measure of
light which is based upon human perception, and not a true, accurate measure of
the photosynthetic power of light at all. Indeed, while their light may appear
to be bright to us, it might not be bright to plants at all, if the light does
not consist of all the precision values plants need to thrive. If a manufacturer
advertises their light specifications in lumens, lux or candlepower, beware!
Plants also use many different bands of light for
photosynthesis, and some bands of light which, while not photosynthetic to a
plant, aid in healthy development, as well as flowering. Some of these
photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic wavelengths are nearly outside the human
range of perception, and do not seem as bright, even though they are nearly
equal in power to the highly-visible bands. If these bands are neglected in
favor of LEDs that appear bright to our eyes, plants will not develop correctly.
This was a common complaint with early LED grow lamps that used only one or two
different values of LEDs, but many manufacturers still design and produce lamps
to these outdated specifications.
Oppositely, some manufacturers advertise a full-spectrum,
and often include white, green, and yellow LEDs in their design. Many of these
wavelengths, however, are inefficiently used by plants, if utilized at all. Plants
have three main photosynthetic substances that react best at certain, precise
wavelengths of light. When you look at plants in sunlight, most plants appear
green, because the bluish-green through yellow-orange spectrum is the spectrum
of light which most plants reflect. Reflected light is light which is not used
by the plant! To address the use of white LEDs, almost all of them combine
certain amounts of blue, red, and green light to produce what we see as white (visual
purpose was the reason they were manufactured in the first place), but almost
all of these white LEDs use wavelengths of these individual colors that are
still nearly useless to plants.Full
spectrum advertisements SOUND good, but they are wasteful of the light you NEED
and the electricity you pay for!
LED precision is of the UTMOST importance! If an LED output
is even a fraction off of the plants necessary peak value, it can be extremely
inefficient for photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic processes. Some
manufacturers use less-expensive LEDs that seem close enough to the numerical peak,
when, in fact, their chosen values may need up to 10 times (or more) as many
LEDs to do what ONE LED of peak-value efficiency will do! ProSource Worldwide has scoured the globe to
find the EXACT peak values that plants utilize. Only right on is close enough
for us! (And it should be for you as
well!)
As you shop, you will also notice that some manufacturers
advertise that they are using 5 and 10 watt LEDs in their products. While these
LEDs are certainly showy and brighter than their 1 and 3 watt counterparts,
they are also very power-inefficient. Higher-wattage LEDs create more heat, so
much of the electricity they consume goes toward the manufacture of that heat,
and the sad truth is that they do not put out nearly the proportion of light to
the power consumed as the 1 and 3 watt LEDs. Depending on LED manufacturing
differences, some 5W LEDs put out LESS light than the best 3W LEDs! (Also, it should be noted that, for the
wavelengths of light plants can best use, very few of these wavelengths are
available in LEDs rated higher than 1 and 3 watts!)Ironically, products that use higher-wattage
LEDs to produce the same amount of light as 1W and 3W-based units are also much
more costly to manufacture, and that cost gets passed down to you as the
consumer many times over: once at the time of purchase, and again, every time
you pay your electricity bill!
Only a small number of manufacturers use the proper values
of LEDs that produce the exact frequencies of light that plants use best, but
very few actually use them in the exact right proportions at which
photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic processes occur. ProSource Worldwide has
incorporated 100 years of PhD-level
plant research to find these precise proportions, so that our lamps
simultaneously produce the maximum amount of plant-useable light, and in the
exact quantities plants need. (Just by using the proper proportions of light, without
increasing power, a grow lamp’s efficiency can increase by a factor of 3 or
more!) We know of no other manufacturer who has devoted and invested this much
time and effort in this area.
Lastly, many knockoff imitators manufacture lamps that may
look like ours, or might actually differ in case color, shape, or style. These
sellers claim to be just as good or better, but they rely on cheap gimmicks in
order to try to stand out from the rest. (One maker even offers a black case,
and black ABSORBS light!)If you do your
research, it will become very clear as to who is for real and those who are
just reselling some cheap imported light to take advantage of a very promising industry.
We continually improve our products through research,
experimentation, development, and customer feedback, as we also keep abreast of
the latest developments in LED manufacturing, in order to give you the best
product possible, and for the exact reason you buy it.We are confident that when given an educated
choice, you will choose ProSource Worldwide.
