LED Grow Lights

How to choose the right LED grow light

Three things decide how well an LED will perform in your space: how efficiently it turns power into light, how evenly it covers the area, and the spectrum it produces.

Efficiency is measured in µmol per joule (µmol/J), the amount of usable light produced for each watt of electricity. When comparing fixtures, check whether the figure is for the whole fixture or just the diodes. The driver that converts mains power is never 100% efficient, so a complete fixture always rates lower than its diodes alone. The figures on our listings are fixture ratings wherever the manufacturer provides them.

Match the wattage to your grow space

Compact 200W to 300W lights such as the Omega Infinity Pro suit tents from 60cm to 1m square. 720W bar lights like the Omega Black 720W Plus are built for 1.2m x 1.2m, and 1000W-class fixtures such as the Omega Infinity 3.0 Pro 1000W cover 1.5m x 1.5m. Bar and spider designs spread their diodes across the whole footprint rather than concentrating them in the centre, which avoids hot spots and keeps light levels even out to the edges of the tent.

Full spectrum light from seedling to harvest

HPS lamps put most of their output into the orange and red part of the spectrum. Full spectrum LEDs add blue, green and yellow, which keeps plants compact during vegetative growth and lets a single fixture run from start to finish without a lamp change between stages. Green light is often thought to be wasted, but it reaches deeper into the canopy than red or blue, lighting leaves that sit lower down the plant.

Propagation, supplemental and under-canopy lighting

Seedlings and cuttings need gentler light. Low-heat strips such as the Omega Clone LEDs sit close over trays without stressing young plants. For established setups, Lumatek and Maxibright UV and far-red bars add parts of the spectrum a main fixture doesn't cover, and the Omega 120W Under Canopy light reaches the lower growth that top lighting misses.

Dimming, scheduling and control

Dimmable fixtures let you run lower intensity for young plants and full output in flower. Controllers such as the Omega Synco V2 (up to 40 fixtures) and Telos Growcast (up to 50) run a whole room to one schedule, with sunrise and sunset modes that ramp light up and down gradually. A PAR meter takes the guesswork out of hanging height.

Why growers are moving from HPS to LED

A 1000W HPS lamp drawing around 1070W produces roughly 1,550 µmol/s of light. An Omega Black 720W produces 2,304 µmol/s from 720W. LEDs also give off far less radiant heat, which makes summer temperatures easier to manage, and Omega fixtures are rated for 50,000 to 60,000 hours, so there are no lamps to replace every few grows.

Looking at HPS, CMH or propagation lighting as well? See our full range of grow lights.