While using about 1/3 the electric
Back in the day growing indoors was very primitive; in fact without having an actual greenhouse the payoff was not very big for the cost. I think the main reason for this is because of the SP129D 35W grow light. The old bulb style grow lights were and still are very wasteful. The problem is that all these bulbs let out nearly all spectrums of light however; plants only use these 2 shades of blue and 2 shades of red to grow “read about photosynthesis”. The majority of the light produced by these bulbs was not even close to the range needed for plant growth. Therefore the plants can only absorb 20% of the light emitted from the unit at best! That means roughly 80% of the light being emitted from these older units is being wasted and being counted as “Heat” to the plant, thus adding stress to the plant. A lot of gardeners will still tell you the best grow plants are done outdoors, but we all don’t have that option and I’ll go over this later in the hub!
Now with the invention of LED Grow Lights the manufactures of these units can choose which spectrums of light to use rather than have a single light source and a very broad spectrum. Because there are so many individual diodes on the grow lights they manufactures can choose exactly the amount of reds and blues they want to include. Even multiple shades of each color of light needed. That’s the main reason led grow lights are going to take over, being able to manipulate what spectrums of light you giving your plant really adds a scientific edge to using these lights.
Now that the makers of led grow lights are choosing the exact spectrums to use they eliminate this 80% wasted spectrum that was previously not avoidable. Once of the main reasons of the electric savings is this.
Another big problem for some growers in some areas is the heat that traditional HPS or HID grow bulbs emit. Now cooling these energy sucking lights also becomes a challenge. Some gardeners are forced to use high tech venting and cooling systems adding more grief to the electric bill. Now I am sure your starting to see the cost starting to build up when trying to grow indoors traditionally. Being a new gardener I never had to deal with this stuff but I think I would have been steered away from indoor gardening if I had a traditional setup sucking all that power.