What should one be looking for as grow light characteristics?

Are there any words you should absolutely look for in the name? Like, if it does not say "grow light" should one avoid it? Or "full spectrum"? If you have some "grow" or "full spectrum" lights, might others not be called those (presumably just every day lighting lights) because the bands or whatever they lack will be covered by the ones that are grow or full spectrum?

What about brightness? I always thought the measuring stick for brightness was luminosity. But in another thread I saw someone say something else should be used. What is that, and will basically all light manufacturers say what that number is on the packaging? Let's call whatever that stat is X. Let's say your goal is 3X. If you have 30 bulbs that are .1X, will combining them, which totals to 3X, get you there, or are they not additive for some reason as to the total light output?

Finally, what about color, or any other characteristics? I saw a youtube video where I think he said color should be from 3500K to 6500K. Thoughts? I see lots of bulbs that don't mention a K rating, anything else to look for or that is relevant?

Thanks so much!!!

OGHomeslice said:

Are there any words you should absolutely look for in the name? Like, if it does not say "grow light" should one avoid it? Or "full spectrum"? If you have some "grow" or "full spectrum" lights, might others not be called those (presumably just every day lighting lights) because the bands or whatever they lack will be covered by the ones that are grow or full spectrum?

What about brightness? I always thought the measuring stick for brightness was luminosity. But in another thread I saw someone say something else should be used. What is that, and will basically all light manufacturers say what that number is on the packaging? Let's call whatever that stat is X. Let's say your goal is 3X. If you have 30 bulbs that are .1X, will combining them, which totals to 3X, get you there, or are they not additive for some reason as to the total light output?

Finally, what about color, or any other characteristics? I saw a youtube video where I think he said color should be from 3500K to 6500K. Thoughts? I see lots of bulbs that don't mention a K rating, anything else to look for or that is relevant?

Thanks so much!!!

Click to expand...

3000k to 3500k is good for both veg and flower. Depending on efficiency of the light, 30-50 watts per square foot during flower and close to half that for veg.

Easier to say Here is what to avoid "3000w led grow light full spectrum" uses only 135w replaces 9million watts of hps.

If your looking at cheap LEDs and it says some stupid high wattage then its worth avoiding, they use 1000x 3w diodes and call it 3000w but they run the diodes at a fraction of that because it makes them not instantly burn out.
Always look for the power consumption.

With good leds look for the umols per joule and the ppf , expect them to list the power draw, the coverage in veg and flower and most will use white based diodes.

Try looking on youtube and watching migro who tests lights. See what is highly praised.
Use forums like this to see what people are growing with.
Avoid amazon and ebay , though you can get some good leds most of them on those places are cheap junk.

Good things to look for in a growlight manufacturer:

- provides full details on what chips are used, make, model, bin. Right now Samsung, cree, osram, nichia are all able to make very good chips. But it doesnt mean any model of chips of these brands will be good. And also some other brands for ex bridgelux and lumileds, luminus are making good cheaper chips which can achieve similar specs as top line just using more chips at less power for higher efficiency, effectively leveraging diode count. What is better, top quality or more chips? Its down to price points and individual cases but there is always an inherent benefit of pushing less power thru each chip. Best solution? Top line chips on low power. But also more expensive.

- Also same for the power supply/driver, real deal manufacturers will give make and model of power supply. Meanwell/inventronics/powerland ar top brands but have many different models.

- Parmaps: a map which shows light intensity over an area, youll see how even the intensity is. Measured in photon density: ppfd. Especially if you see a video of someone making the map, cause anyone can fib it if theyre not upfront.

- grow diaries with pretty pictures do not ever make up for missing details as per above. Side by sides with another light gives you some info if you know tthe other light.

Short cuts: why not check out our sponsors: HLG, timber growlights, cutter electronics or cobkits.com? Sorry if ive forgotten someone. Theyve all been with this community for years and are reliable.
Dont look for for your first led on amazon. Just dont, its maybe 1 or 2 decent ones the rest is mostly crap, pretty much anything which gives a purple light is crap, no matter what their sales pitch.

Also those who supply links to independent sites for so called sphere tests, these tests measure total output of the light so you can trust theyve got something good to show off. And i forgot about chilled led, also top line.