Choosing the right LED grow light wattage that best meets the light requirements of their plants.
How to Choose the Grow Light Wattage for Plants
More growers are adopting LED grow lights as their preferred light source for their grow tents. These lights come in different sizes and models to meet the specific needs of growers. However, growers are often faced with the tricky decision of choosing the right LED grow light wattage that best meets the light requirements of their plants.
In this article, we will first walk you through how grow lights function and how grow light wattage impacts plant growth. Then you'll find answers to the best grow light wattage for indoor plants.
How Do Grow Lights Work
Indoor plants do not have access to direct sunlight. Therefore, they require an artificial light source, and this is where grow lights come in. They emit specific wavelengths of light that plants absorb for photosynthesis, the process of converting light energy into chemical energy to fuel plant growth.
There are different types of grow lights, including LED grow lights, HID, and fluorescent lights, but they all work similarly. When you turn on a grow light, it emits photons, which are particles of light energy. The photons are absorbed by the plant's leaves and used to power photosynthesis.
Grow Light Wattage: How Does It Influence Plant Growth
The grow light wattage for indoor plants determines how much light energy a grow light can provide to the plants. The more wattage a grow light has, the brighter it will be, and the more light it can provide to the plants. However, it’s not always the case that more is better. Why?
Plants at different growth stages require a certain amount of light energy to develop properly, and this amount can vary depending on the plant strains, grow tent sizes, and other factors. In general, plants need more light during the vegetative stage and less light during the flowering stage, but the exact amount of wattage remains uncertain in real cases.
Additionally, not all types of grow lights have the same efficiency when converting electrical energy into light energy. For example, LED grow lights are more efficient than traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights, meaning they can provide the same amount of light with less wattage.
How to Choose to Grow Light with the Right Wattage
Having read this far, the next consideration is choosing the grow light with the right wattage for your grow area. This process depends on three major factors – the growth phase of your plants, the total area of your grow tent, and the type of grow lights you employ.
Growth Phase of Your Plants - Determine Ideal Light Intensity As briefly mentioned above, each phase in the lifecycle of your plants requires a different amount of light. In terms of the general three growth stages, the grow light wattage for seedlings does not require high intensity, but the vegetative stage does, and the flowering stage thrives best with average light intensity.
2. Size of Your Grow Area - Determine Total Wattage Needed Based on the Photosynthetic Photon Efficacy (PPE), which measures how efficiently a bulb converts (watts) into light (photons), the watt per square foot (watt/sq ft) principle is widely used to assess the ability of a bulb to light up a grow area. It comes of great help when determining the number of watts required and the number of LED units you need for complete and optimal illumination. A small grow space requires less power, while vice versa.
Low-efficacy LED lights, including generic lights, have a PPE of about 1.0 µmol/J and require 50-60 w/sq ft.
Medium efficacy LED lights, including housing-type lights, have a PPE of about 1.5 µmol/J and require 30-40 w/sq ft.
High-efficacy LED lights, including those with quality diodes or high-end drivers, have a PPE of about 2.5 µmol/J and require 25-30 w/sq ft.
3. Determine the Type of Grow Lights Although there are many types of grow lights in the market, such as HPS vs LED grow lights, and fluorescent grow lights, LED grow lights are the most recommended options. LED chips generally have higher PPEs, which is why they require fewer watts to emit higher amounts of light compared to other types of lamps or bulbs with lower PPEs.
ILUMINAR Lighting iLogic™ series with wattages reaching from 330W to 1000W for a full-spectrum LED grow light.
Complementing full spectrum with UV-A and far-red, the iLogic™ UV+Far-Red represents a long-awaited union between our most recent understanding of plant science and cutting-edge LED technology. Photosynthetic rates are not only enhanced, but growers experience less stretching during transition along with more branching and increased production of terpenes and essential oils.
Conclusion on Grow Light Wattage
Plants cannot survive without light. Outdoor plants obtain light from the sun, while indoor plants rely on artificial sources. LED grow lights offer more lighting options and capabilities and are cost-efficient over a long period. ILUMINAR Lighting is the premier lighting manufacturer of all commercial indoor lighting products in the agricultural market.
We help our clients maximize their yields and the overall quality of their buds by offering the largest selection of products that cover everything from the light spectrum to energy efficiency, and voltage application.
FAQs about Grow Light Wattage
What is the best wattage for grow lights? The best wattage for grow lights depends on various factors such as the type of plants you are growing, the size of your grow tent, the type of grow light you are using, and the growth stage of your plants. However, as a general rule of thumb, when using LED grow lights, you should aim for around 30-50 watts per square foot of grow space, while for traditional grow lights, you should aim for 50-80 watts per square foot of grow space.
How many plants can I grow with a 100W LED light? On average, a 100W LED light can cover an area of around 2-4 square feet for vegetative growth and 1-2 square feet for flowering growth. If you are growing lettuce indoors or other small plants, you can grow around 1-4 plants per square foot of grow space. For larger plants such as tomatoes or peppers, you may need to space them out more and grow 1-2 plants per square foot of grow space.
Is higher wattage better for grow lights? Not necessarily. While higher-wattage grow lights generally produce more light than lower-wattage grow lights, the quality and efficiency of the light emitted by the grow light are just as important as the wattage.
Is a 40-watt grow light enough? For small plants that do not require high-intensity light, such as herbs, lettuce, or succulents, 40 watts may be enough. However, for larger plants, a 30-watt grow light may not be sufficient.