How To Choose The Ideal LED Grow Light Setup

Consider the following factors when choosing the perfect LED Grow Light Setup:

• Plant / Garden:
  • Demand of Light
  • On & Off Cycles or Phtotoperiod (ie. 12/12, 16/8, etc)
• Area of you indoor grow:
  • Size
  • Shape
• Understand and Define Your Goal:
  • Vegetative (VEG), Flowering (Bud) Or Full Cycle
  • Micro Grow or High Yield Grow
  • Active growth vs. maintenance

By selecting the ¹appropriate footprint coverage using light found on extreme Led Grow Lights, you can rest assured that your goal Grow can be successfully achieved.

Led Grow Light Intensity and Coverage

Each led grow light uses LED’s to create light. The average light output per LED is the same as the number of Watts each LED in the Grow Light. Example; 3w led outputs 3w of light intensity. A 400W LED Grow light that has 5w led’s in it will have 80 led’s to make up the 400W LED Grow Light unit. Therefore it would produce 400w of light intensity. 

Ideally, you want to purchase a LED Grow light that evenly distributes the intensity over the entire footprint.

The intensity of the light within the footprint and the size of the footprint are controlled by how high you hand the LED Grow Light Unit above your plants.

If you were to move the light closer to the plant tops, it will decrease the size of the overall footprint but will increase the light intensity because you are spreading the same amount of light over a smaller area. So moving the light further increases the footprint but decreases the light intensity.

Make sense?

Regardless of the size light you are using, you can get an equivalent percentage increase in DLI by increasing the number of hours the light is on or by shrinking the footprint area.

example; increase DLI by 25% by shrinking the covered footprint by 25% or increasing the hours the light is on by 25%.

Getting simpler, right?

Indoor Garden Grow Aarea Shape

Most LED Grow Lights incorporate a square footprint area, but you can still use them in a rectangular grow area. You have three options for covering a non square area:

1. Use a light big enough to cover the longest dimension:

• For a slight rectangular grow light coverage that can be the least expensive option. Use reflective material such as Mylar which is on most indoor gardening tents. Mylar helps the plants obtain the same amount of light. If your grow area longest side is more than 1.5x the length of the shortest side,  you should use the 2nd or 3rd option.

1. Use multiple lights:
   • By hanging two or more lights side-by-side you can create a rectangular footprint. For example, two PhytoMAX 200‘s hung 2.5 feet apart (on center) will cover a 2.5 x 5 foot rectangular area, using our maximum recommended flowering footprint for photoperiod-sensitive Marijuana.
   • In a partial combination with option #1 above, these same two lights could also cover a 2.5 x 4 foot area, a 2 x 5 foot area, or even a 2 x 4 foot area.

    

2. Use a light mover to “stretch” the footprint shape:
   • Hanging the light from a light mover will change the shape of the light’s effective footprint. The actual footprint is still square, but by moving this square footprint back and forth in a line, it is effectively transformed into a rectangle. Often the cost of an appropriate larger light with a light mover is less than the cost of two smaller lights without a light mover, making it the most economical choice for many rectangular growing areas.