can you use a lcd panel as a grow light factory

Firstly, I"ve been reading through the forums for a while, but rarely post. I want to thank the posters for the wealth of information that you provide.

Would an LCD or LED TV or monitor (32-37") provide enough to use as a light source for a small indoor grow? LCD and LED TVs are dropping in price, and wouldn"t get nearly as hot as some other sources of artificial light (I know they do heat up, but I don"t think it would heat up a small room too bad).

Would switching from veg to flower be as simple as changing the hue of the screen from a whiter light to a more yellow light? I am semi-experienced, and familiar with the basic concepts involved with indoor hydro growing. Any information you could offer would be appreciated. Thanks!

This website is operated by HS Supplies LLC. Throughout the site, the terms “we”, “us” and “our” refer to HS Supplies LLC. HS Supplies LLC offers this website, including all information, tools and services available from this site to you, the user, conditioned upon your acceptance of all terms, conditions, policies and notices stated here.

By visiting our site and/ or purchasing something from us, you engage in our “Service” and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (“Terms of Service”, “Terms”), including those additional terms and conditions and policies referenced herein and/or available by hyperlink. These Terms of Service apply  to all users of the site, including without limitation users who are browsers, vendors, customers, merchants, and/ or contributors of content.

Please read these Terms of Service carefully before accessing or using our website. By accessing or using any part of the site, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the website or use any services. If these Terms of Service are considered an offer, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms of Service.

Any new features or tools which are added to the current store shall also be subject to the Terms of Service. You can review the most current version of the Terms of Service at any time on this page. We reserve the right to update, change or replace any part of these Terms of Service by posting updates and/or changes to our website. It is your responsibility to check this page periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the website following the posting of any changes constitutes acceptance of those changes.

By agreeing to these Terms of Service, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence and you have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.

You may not use our products for any illegal or unauthorized purpose nor may you, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws).

You understand that your content (not including credit card information), may be transferred unencrypted and involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices. Credit card information is always encrypted during transfer over networks.

You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit any portion of the Service, use of the Service, or access to the Service or any contact on the website through which the service is provided, without express written permission by us.

We are not responsible if information made available on this site is not accurate, complete or current. The material on this site is provided for general information only and should not be relied upon or used as the sole basis for making decisions without consulting primary, more accurate, more complete or more timely sources of information. Any reliance on the material on this site is at your own risk.

This site may contain certain historical information. Historical information, necessarily, is not current and is provided for your reference only. We reserve the right to modify the contents of this site at any time, but we have no obligation to update any information on our site. You agree that it is your responsibility to monitor changes to our site.

Certain products or services may be available exclusively online through the website. These products or services may have limited quantities and are subject to return or exchange only according to our Return Policy.

We have made every effort to display as accurately as possible the colors and images of our products that appear at the store. We cannot guarantee that your computer monitor"s display of any color will be accurate.

We reserve the right, but are not obligated, to limit the sales of our products or Services to any person, geographic region or jurisdiction. We may exercise this right on a case-by-case basis. We reserve the right to limit the quantities of any products or services that we offer. All descriptions of products or product pricing are subject to change at anytime without notice, at the sole discretion of us. We reserve the right to discontinue any product at any time. Any offer for any product or service made on this site is void where prohibited.

We do not warrant that the quality of any products, services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you will meet your expectations, or that any errors in the Service will be corrected.

We reserve the right to refuse any order you place with us. We may, in our sole discretion, limit or cancel quantities purchased per person, per household or per order. These restrictions may include orders placed by or under the same customer account, the same credit card, and/or orders that use the same billing and/or shipping address. In the event that we make a change to or cancel an order, we may attempt to notify you by contacting the e-mail and/or billing address/phone number provided at the time the order was made. We reserve the right to limit or prohibit orders that, in our sole judgment, appear to be placed by dealers, resellers or distributors.

You agree to provide current, complete and accurate purchase and account information for all purchases made at our store. You agree to promptly update your account and other information, including your email address and credit card numbers and expiration dates, so that we can complete your transactions and contact you as needed.

You acknowledge and agree that we provide access to such tools ”as is” and “as available” without any warranties, representations or conditions of any kind and without any endorsement. We shall have no liability whatsoever arising from or relating to your use of optional third-party tools.

Any use by you of optional tools offered through the site is entirely at your own risk and discretion and you should ensure that you are familiar with and approve of the terms on which tools are provided by the relevant third-party provider(s).

We may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the website (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall also be subject to these Terms of Service.

Third-party links on this site may direct you to third-party websites that are not affiliated with us. We are not responsible for examining or evaluating the content or accuracy and we do not warrant and will not have any liability or responsibility for any third-party materials or websites, or for any other materials, products, or services of third-parties.

We are not liable for any harm or damages related to the purchase or use of goods, services, resources, content, or any other transactions made in connection with any third-party websites. Please review carefully the third-party"s policies and practices and make sure you understand them before you engage in any transaction. Complaints, claims, concerns, or questions regarding third-party products should be directed to the third-party.

If, at our request, you send certain specific submissions (for example contest entries) or without a request from us you send creative ideas, suggestions, proposals, plans, or other materials, whether online, by email, by postal mail, or otherwise (collectively, "comments"), you agree that we may, at any time, without restriction, edit, copy, publish, distribute, translate and otherwise use in any medium any comments that you forward to us. We are and shall be under no obligation (1) to maintain any comments in confidence; (2) to pay compensation for any comments; or (3) to respond to any comments.

We may, but have no obligation to, monitor, edit or remove content that we determine in our sole discretion are unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene or otherwise objectionable or violates any party’s intellectual property or these Terms of Service.

You agree that your comments will not violate any right of any third-party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, personality or other personal or proprietary right. You further agree that your comments will not contain libelous or otherwise unlawful, abusive or obscene material, or contain any computer virus or other malware that could in any way affect the operation of the Service or any related website. You may not use a false e-mail address, pretend to be someone other than yourself, or otherwise mislead us or third-parties as to the origin of any comments. You are solely responsible for any comments you make and their accuracy. We take no responsibility and assume no liability for any comments posted by you or any third-party.

Occasionally there may be information on our site or in the Service that contains typographical errors, inaccuracies or omissions that may relate to product descriptions, pricing, promotions, offers, product shipping charges, transit times and availability. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions, and to change or update information or cancel orders if any information in the Service or on any related website is inaccurate at any time without prior notice (including after you have submitted your order).

We undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify information in the Service or on any related website, including without limitation, pricing information, except as required by law. No specified update or refresh date applied in the Service or on any related website, should be taken to indicate that all information in the Service or on any related website has been modified or updated.

In addition to other prohibitions as set forth in the Terms of Service, you are prohibited from using the site or its content: (a) for any unlawful purpose; (b) to solicit others to perform or participate in any unlawful acts; (c) to violate any international, federal, provincial or state regulations, rules, laws, or local ordinances; (d) to infringe upon or violate our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of others; (e) to harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, slander, disparage, intimidate, or discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, age, national origin, or disability; (f) to submit false or misleading information; (g) to upload or transmit viruses or any other type of malicious code that will or may be used in any way that will affect the functionality or operation of the Service or of any related website, other websites, or the Internet; (h) to collect or track the personal information of others; (i) to spam, phish, pharm, pretext, spider, crawl, or scrape; (j) for any obscene or immoral purpose; or (k) to interfere with or circumvent the security features of the Service or any related website, other websites, or the Internet. We reserve the right to terminate your use of the Service or any related website for violating any of the prohibited uses.

You expressly agree that your use of, or inability to use, the service is at your sole risk. The service and all products and services delivered to you through the service are (except as expressly stated by us) provided "as is" and "as available" for your use, without any representation, warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied, including all implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, durability, title, and non-infringement.

In no case shall HS Supplies LLC, our directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents, contractors, interns, suppliers, service providers or licensors be liable for any injury, loss, claim, or any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special, or consequential damages of any kind, including, without limitation lost profits, lost revenue, lost savings, loss of data, replacement costs, or any similar damages, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or otherwise, arising from your use of any of the service or any products procured using the service, or for any other claim related in any way to your use of the service or any product, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the service or any content (or product) posted, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the service, even if advised of their possibility. Because some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or the limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such states or jurisdictions, our liability shall be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless HS Supplies LLC and our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, officers, directors, agents, contractors, licensors, service providers, subcontractors, suppliers, interns and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third-party due to or arising out of your breach of these Terms of Service or the documents they incorporate by reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third-party.

In the event that any provision of these Terms of Service is determined to be unlawful, void or unenforceable, such provision shall nonetheless be enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, and the unenforceable portion shall be deemed to be severed from these Terms of Service, such determination shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any other remaining provisions.

The obligations and liabilities of the parties incurred prior to the termination date shall survive the termination of this agreement for all purposes.

These Terms of Service are effective unless and until terminated by either you or us. You may terminate these Terms of Service at any time by notifying us that you no longer wish to use our Services, or when you cease using our site.

If in our sole judgment you fail, or we suspect that you have failed, to comply with any term or provision of these Terms of Service, we also may terminate this agreement at any time without notice and you will remain liable for all amounts due up to and including the date of termination; and/or accordingly may deny you access to our Services (or any part thereof).

These Terms of Service and any policies or operating rules posted by us on this site or in respect to The Service constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between you and us and govern your use of the Service, superseding any prior or contemporaneous agreements, communications and proposals, whether oral or written, between you and us (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Service).

These Terms of Service and any separate agreements whereby we provide you Services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of 8650 Genesee Ave, Ste 214, San Diego , CA, 92192, United States.

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to update, change or replace any part of these Terms of Service by posting updates and changes to our website. It is your responsibility to check our website periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to our website or the Service following the posting of any changes to these Terms of Service constitutes acceptance of those changes.

Growing Effect: Indoor plant light can give off full spectrum range from 380 nm up to 800 nm which plants can absorb all lights it needs. This plant light includes three different LED light beads. Red light can bring about better result of flowering and fruiting. Blue light can help your indoor plant to sprout. Besides, white light can enhance the photosynthesis of your plants.

Flexible Timer with LCD: With built-in timer, you can set timer of plant grow light from 00:10 to 23:50 according to the actual need of plants. The indoor grow light will turn on/off automatically in 24 hours. With LCD, you can monitor the timing setting and time-remaining clearly.

10 Dimmable Levels & 4 Switch Modes: This growing light has 10 levels of light intensity and 4 switch modes to meet different stages of planting growth. You can change the grow lights intensity from 10% to 100% by the “+” or “-” button and also turn on/off all, three, two or only one light of grow lamp by pressing the power button.

Adjustable Gooseneck & Strong Clamp: Indoor plant lights comes with 4 360-degree flexible goosenecks and a strong clip, which allows you to adjust angle and distance between the lamp and plants and use it at any desired position and your plant gain the most light.

Great Compatibility: The replaceable bulbs are made of 192 LED lamp beads, this plant grow light provides your plant with bright and even light. With larger illuminated area, the plant growing lamp is more suitable for your plant through its whole growth circle.

When deciding on the type of lighting for plants, first you need to ask yourself why are you growing the plants. If you are growing the plants because you enjoy seeing them then you would want to use lighting technologies designed for humans. If you do not care what the plants look like, then there are very efficient plant lights that are tuned to the light spectrum most appreciated by plants. That spectrum has the side effect that the plants can appear black, brown, or purple. Maybe you like purple plants.

LED lighting is an emerging technology. Every year there is some new product for humans that is also useful for growing and displaying plants. As such the ICPS cannot specifically recommend particular products but we can help to make the technology more approachable. The better you understand the technology, the less dizzying the choices.

Chlorophyll is the primary chemical in chloroplasts that coverts light energy into chemical energy in plant cells. Chlorophyll primarily uses deep red and deep blue light. Humans do not see these colors well. Other light sensitive chemicals in chloroplasts can help chlorophyll utilize other colors of light at lower efficiency.

Generally carnivorous plants need more light than what humans generally use indoors. Plants that need full sun need very intense light and are best grown outdoors as much as possible. But there are many species of carnivorous plants that do well with a reasonable amount of lighting. This is especially great if you use the spill-over light for lighting a room.

White or near-white lighting is preferred for plants on display in human living areas. There are some off-the-shelf options for white plant lighting but you may need to be a little creative if you are setting up a display area for your plants in a living area.

If you have a large collection of plants not in a living area, there are a number of types of plant-specific lighting available. The cost and carbon footprint for electricity for the grow area can be reduced 50% to 70% by using LED lighting tuned for plants instead of white LEDs tuned for humans. You should mix in a few white lights to help you see the plants better.

Note: On this page, 450nm wavelength light is referred to as "deep blue" and 660nm wavelength light as "deep red". Chlorophyll in plants primarily uses light around these wavelengths. Human eyes have very low sensitivity to light at these wavelengths so high levels of 450nm and 660nm wavelength light appear dim or deep to humans.

The dominant type of lighting manufactured today is the white LED. These LEDs work like fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lights use high voltage and mercury vapor to produce UV light which is converted to visible light by phosphors deposited on the inside of a glass tube. For white LEDs, instead of producing UV light with high voltage, they efficiently produce intense deep blue light via semiconductor light emitting diodes at low voltage. The deep blue light is passed through a coating of phosphors to convert most of the blue light to longer wavelength colors.

The LED chips are mounted in packages. The package on the left contains a deep blue LED chip mounted in the center while the chip on the right has a deep red LED chip. The deep red LED chip has a phosphor coating over the chip to convert the inherent deep blue light to deep red. These chips are covered with a clear resin. They are part of a blue/red panel light intended for plant lighting. The 225 LED panels with blue and red LEDs produce intense to very intense lighting for plants depending on the wattage and distance from the plants.

For white and purple LEDs, manufacturers can adjust the phosphors to produce any color spectrum desired for lighting. White lighting products will contain LED chips in packages with a yellow-orange phosphor coating to convert the blue light to white light. Purple plant lighting LEDs would use a different mix of phosphors that would look red when the power is off.

This strip light is sold for use as accent and under-cabinet lighting but is useful for plant lighting under conditions where other available products will not work. These lighting strips can be very expensive to use for plant lighting. It takes about 200 of these chips per square foot (30 cm2) to provide a moderate amount of light for plants.

LED spotlights also work well for plant lighting. A power supply and LED module on the left are from a white LED spotlight. The AC to DC power supply is necessary for efficient LED lights. The LED module on the right is from a purple LED plant light bulb. It is higher wattage and uses 20 LEDs. The phosphor coating has a red color from phosphors that produce the deep red light plants appreciate.

The LED light modules were removed from failed LED bulbs. The bulbs failed because of improper assembly in a factory causing the modules inside the bulbs to overheat. Notice the scorching on the right module circuit board. Individual LEDs do get hot and will fail if they get too hot.

Care must be taken to make sure LED bulbs and fixtures get enough air circulation to keep them from getting too hot. The useful lifetime of individual LED chips is determined by how hot they get. The hotter they get, the quicker they dim over time. If they get too hot, they will fail. Under ideal conditions, LEDs will normally lose 30% of their brightness after they have been in use 16 hours a day for 4 to 8 years depending on the exact fixtures used and how hot they get.

If you use spotlights over 10 watts, they should not be in any sort of enclosure like a desk lamp. Most purple LED plant spot lights are 18 to 35 watts. If you use strip lights, they must be adhesive-backed and stuck to aluminum heat sinks. If you use panel lights, there must be air circulation around them. This is especially important with 30 watt and higher panel lights. 35 watt panel lights can be 18°C (30°F) higher than ambient temperature. A small fan may be necessary if the light fixtures are in enclosed spaces. A fan is not necessary if air can naturally circulate around the light fixture.

The weak link in many LED fixtures is the power supply. The parts can degrade over time from the heat produced by the power supply itself and the LEDs. This is another reason not to enclose LED bulbs and fixtures.

Poorly designed power supplies can produce radio and TV interference. Ferrite core RFI/EMI suppressor cable clips may help with minor interference. Unfortunately, fluorescent tube to LED conversion kits may produce more interference than can be blocked by ferrite cores. There are much better choices than converting fluorescent fixtures to use tubes with LEDs mounted inside.

When shopping for LED fixtures and bulbs, you need to be careful about hyped or misleading claims. It is common to state the watt-equivalents of a fixture or bulb. Equivalent to what? Did they actually do experiments to determine the claims? The light spectrums are very different for other light technologies so there can be no easy conversion number. Instead, carefully look for the actual wattage of the device. This is what matters. It may be in the fine print. And for your particular situation, higher wattage may not be better because higher wattage means more heat produced. Also ignore many other claims such as light dispersion angle and area illuminated. Properly specified, light dispersion angle should include percent attenuation of light at that angle. Quite often they use the 50% attenuation level. Likewise, area illuminated should have distance from the light source and attenuation at the edges of the area. These issues will be discussed below.

Most LED plant lights available are designed for growing Cannabis in a basement or closet. The lights are hung from a ceiling on cables that can be adjusted as the plants grow. Mounting these lights can be problematic under shelves or over desks and tables. ALWAYS, when setting up lighting for plants, remember safety is the number one concern. Make sure the light fixtures are mounted securely. Make sure air is able to circulate around the bulb or fixture to help cool it. Make sure cords and wires are secured. Make sure plugs are plugged in all the way. Use timers instead of constantly plugging and unplugging power cords.

When it comes to plants, humans, and light, there is a conflict of interest between plants and humans over light. Human eyes are tuned to colors reflected by plant leaves. The plants reflect those colors of light because they have little use for it. If human eyes had exactly the same light sensitivity spectrum as the absorbance spectrum of plants, the plants would look black to us. That would not be very useful to humans. This means we have to make choices about how we grow plants under lights. It uses less energy to grow plants under the light spectrum that is most efficient for them. But we cannot see those colors of light very well. You think the plants are in the dark, but they are not in terms of light energy.

The peak light absorption of chlorophyll in plants is at the blue and red tails of the human light sensitivity spectrum. The precise spectrum the plants use is not known because it is difficult to measure light usage in live plants. Most graphs of light absorbance of chlorophyll and other light sensitive chemicals are after the chemical is extracted from leaves. Some experimentation may be necessary to find the right light spectrum for your plants.

Plant lights consisting of just deep blue and deep red LEDs that match the color of the chlorophyll peak absorbance points work well for most plants. The ratio of blue to red light appears not to be a major consideration for some plants while the ratio can be a life or death issue for other plants. One reason for this variation in light color sensitivity is, in the mid and high latitudes, sunlight is bluer during summer than it is in winter because of the way light interacts with the atmosphere. Temperate plants can use this seasonal variation in sunlight properties to determine when to grow and when to bloom and go dormant or expect to die. Equatorial plants would not see this variation but may use sunlight properties to determine if they are in full sun or in shade.

To confuse the issue even more, before the advent of LED lighting, fluorescent lighting was the best source for plant lighting. Under most conditions, fluorescent grow lights were not much better than white fluorescent tubes. The color spectrum of light from the white fluorescent tubes did not match chlorophyll spectrum very well but the plants grew spectacularly if they could handle the heat.

Plants can also use changes in day length to determine life stages. When growing plants that require seasonal light cues under artificial light, a timer that is capable of changing the on and off times daily according to the date and latitude is critical. This helps prevent the plants from getting stuck in a particular season. This is especially bad if the season they get stuck in is the dormant season.

In their native habitats, many carnivorous plants live with full exposure to the sun. This is about 100,000 lux of light at noon. To grow these plants indoors requires a lot of light, not 100,000 lux, but still a lot. Even plants that normally live in somewhat shaded conditions still require more light than a lighting designer would suggest for indoor lighting for humans. Bright shade is about 15,000 lux; typical office lighting is 1000 lux.

We are using lux here to indicate the amount of light the plants need. A lux meter will measure the light intensity with the same sensitivity spectrum as the human eye. Unfortunately there is no definitive way to accurately measure the amount of light from a fixture that is useful for plants. Most of the time we have to resort to trial and error.

Lighting levels need to be determined by trial and error because everyone has a unique situation. It helps to have a Lux meter when using white lighting. There are meters that are marketed for use in determining plant-relevant lighting levels. They will give you a number that could be of little value.

To get 25,000 lux requires 2000 lumens or 30 watts of white LED lighting per square foot (30 cm2) of growing area. The plants need the lights on for 12 to 16 hours per day. The lamps should be high enough above the top of the plants to illuminate the whole growing space but not too high wasting light. This height will depend on the lighting fixture or bulb. Reflective material on three sides will help immensely by decreasing edge effects.

For blue/red plant lighting, 15 watts per square foot (30 cm2) of growing area works well. How high the light fixtures are above the plants depends on the fixtures and reflective surfaces at the sides of the growing area. Experimentation will be necessary.

Expect LEDs to dim over time. After 35,000 hours of use it is not unusual for them to be only 70% as bright as they were initially. They can lose luminosity quicker if they overheat.

This lower light level can be achieved by using 40% lower wattage, illuminating a larger area with the same fixtures, using fewer or different fixtures, or not using side reflectors.

The plants preferring less light may be placed on the edges of the grow area where the plants needing high intensity are in the center of the grow area immediately under the lights.

This is still more than human office lighting levels. Use indirect light or spillover from adjacent plant lighting or from low wattage LED fixtures. Better yet, use a window that does not get direct sunlight.

LEDs manufactured for in-home human lighting typically come in various color temperatures and color rendering indexes (CRI). LEDs with color temperatures of 5000K mimic full sun light color and may appear a high energy blue in homes. LEDs with color temperatures of 3000K mimic shade and appear a calming yellow in homes. 80 CRI LEDs are less expensive than 90 CRI LEDs and are slightly brighter per unit of power. However the colors of objects under 80 CRI will not match what you would see under sunlight or incandescent lighting. 90 CRI LEDs use more phosphors to tune the light for better color rendition. For plants sensitive to blue/red ratio, 5000K and 80 CRI LEDs have a relatively higher amount of deep blue light and less deep red than 3000K and 90 CRI LEDs. For some plants, the choice of color temperature and color rendering index will make a difference.

The best feature of LED lighting is it is inherently directional. You can choose bulbs appropriate for your needs without having to resort to fixtures with fancy reflectors and mirrors. LED spot lights do work best for plants that hold out their leaves more-or-less horizontally. You could use an LED spot light above a Nepenthes plant, a large pot of Drosera or Dionaea, or as lighting for a hexagon terrarium. However, the lack of light dispersion can also be a disadvantage. The beam of light is so narrow it would not work well with pitcher plants such as Heliamphora even if the plants were surrounded by mirrors.

Light panels are another choice for plant lighting. The light panels have arrays of LED chips mounted on a circuit board. The panels will give more even light than a spotlight but it is not as even as one may expect at first glance. There are significant edge effects. If you put a 30 cm square light panel 38 cm over two side-by-side 1020 (26 x 52 cm) plant trays, the plants on the edges will get 45% less light than the plants in the center. If your plants want high intensity light, it may be best to use two lower watt panels per tray or one panel per 30 cm2 (1 sq ft). Make sure you check the wattage of the panels to get the amount of light the plants appreciate.

An interesting concept is panel lights that use mostly white LEDs with some deep red and deep blue LEDs. The light from these panels appears "normal" to human eyes. However, the plants may or may not like the light from the available panels. The white/red lights are problematic for many plants. Some growers swear by the white/blue panels. The panel above has blue, red, orange, and white LEDs. It has enough white to see the plants well. How well these panels work for some plants hinges on the ratio of colors the plants use in nature.

With the dramatic rise in home farming of Cannabis, many new plant light bulbs and fixtures have become widely available and inexpensive. These bulbs and fixtures can be great for situations where plants are being propagated or otherwise not part of a display. It is a general principle in horticulture that if you want a nice display of plants, unless you constantly want to buy new plants, you need an additional grow area with at least twice the space for plants to be rotated into the display. This can mean a lot of electricity for plants you will not be seeing all the time.

The lights tuned for plants produce light that plants require and do not "waste" energy on light that plants do not need. The more you pay for electricity, or the more you care for your carbon footprint, the more you need to consider plant-specific lighting for your non-display plants. Generally, you can figure the electricity usage will decrease at least 50% compared to white LEDs. The electricity usage could be even 70% lower if it was possible to measure the amount of plant-active light and use the minimum necessary. However, there is a tendency to think maybe the plants would appreciate more light and, of course, you decide why not.

The most basic of panel plant lights have a combination of just deep blue and deep red LEDs, usually at a ratio of about one blue to two red. They produce light that appears dim and purple to humans. For purple plant spotlights it is difficult to determine the blue/red ratio unless they are constructed with separate color LEDs and you can see them without breaking the bulb. The kind in the image of a burned out module above seems redder than a typical blue/red panel.

Most full-sun plants love this purple light. However, humans cannot judge how bright the light is. Without some white light human eyes react as if it is dark when in fact the light can be extremely bright. It is best when viewing or working with the plants under purple plant lighting that there also be white lights on to help your eyes adjust.

As with these Cephalotus plants, it is difficult to determine how well the plants are doing or if they need feeding while under pure deep blue/deep red light. To judge how they are doing requires seeing how green the new leaves are. The lighter green the leaves are, the more they need to be fed. This is another reason to have white lights as part of a growing arrangement. And ideal plant light or fixture will have some white light LEDs or you can use some standard white LED bulbs that can be turned on as needed.

Basement grow room with a mix of deep blue/deep red LED panels and deep blue/white panels. This part of it is mostly Sarracenia. Photo by Carson Trexler.

For some plants, the typical Cannabis "grow" ratio of one deep blue to two deep red LED chips is too blue while the Cannabis "bloom" ratio of one deep red to three white LED chips is too red. This is especially a problem with many Drosera species. It may be difficult to find a panel plant light with the best ratio of deep blue, deep red, and white LED chips in a regular pattern that works well for most Drosera. Temperate species such as Drosera intermedia, Drosera hybrida, and others will go dormant prematurely and remain dormant for nine months if the color is not to their liking. Winter growing tuberous and pygmy Drosera can have problems with premature dormancy. Using a combination of purple plant spotlights, pure deep red spotlights, and white spotlights does work under conditions where spotlights are feasible but is not optimal. Many growers use panels with white and deep blue LEDs. It is unclear at this point why Drosera are so finicky and how to deal with that.

Quick changes in lighting type may induce plants to do things they may not do under the same lighting once they are used to it. When doing "experiments" with light fixtures, unless the plants really get upset with the lights, it can take a year to determine whether a setup works or not. If all else fails, use white light.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

The rapid increase in the use of LED technology for horticultural lighting applications has also raised discussions regarding the potential human health risks compared to legacy lighting solutions. This is somewhat due to the differences in visual appearance (colour and intensities) of the light in such applications.

At a high enough intensity, any type of light, regardless of the source has the potential to harm the eyes or skin through prolonged thermal exposure or photochemical effects of ultraviolet, blue light &/or infrared emissions. Shorter wavelength, higher energy blue light (400nm and 500nm) can cause retina damage through a combination of photochemical action and high intensity. Higher concentration light sources will provide more direct energy and a higher risk. For example, staring at a clear blue sky (scattered blue light) is a low risk, while looking directly at the sun can begin irreversible damage almost immediately.

Prolonged direct viewing of bright light sources must always be avoided, especially at short distances. In practice, nobody voluntarily spends any significant time looking directly at an intense light source. Common sense and the natural human instinctive aversion reaction (we instinctively shut our eyes or look away) means that prolonged direct exposure of the eye to a potentially damaging light source will be avoided.

Like other lighting technologies, LED grow lights must be checked for photobiological safety according to EN 62471 – the standard for photobiological safety of lamps and lamp systems. This includes thermal and blue light analysis in the spectral range is 200nm to 3000nm. EN 62471 exposure limit classifications represent conditions under which it is believed most people may be repeatedly exposed without adverse health effects. It should be noted that the classification only indicates potential risk. Depending upon use, the risk may not actually become a real hazard.

When it comes to human visual perception, what is often forgotten is that “traditional” light sources were never designed or intended specifically for horticulture applications. Historically, artificial light has always been optimised for human visual benefit. LED grow lights on the other hand are specifically designed for the benefit of plants and thus sometimes appear strange to human eyes. Valoya LED grow lights are true wide spectrum lights, meaning they contain bits of all colours from the spectrum, including outside the PAR area, just like the sun. Because of this they appear from white to soft pink which makes them pleasant to work under and makes identifying the colour of plants underneath them easy. A cheap alternative to that, which most LED manufacturers opt for, is using red, blue and white LED chips which result in a strong, piercing pink color, unpleasant to human eyes. In terms of health effects, Valoya LED grow lights are not blue dominant and are classified in the no-risk or lowest risk group.

The eye is a complex organ that naturally tries its best to compensate for varying lighting conditions, and LED grow light spectra may not always appear “natural” to humans. If lighting conditions for the human eye change (e.g. going from a LED lit growth environment to natural daylight), colour perception may be temporarily affected while the eye adjusts. This is natural and should not be misinterpreted as possible “damage” from exposure to LED light.

In conclusion it can be said that commercially available LED light sources (for horticultural or other applications) can be considered human safe when designed, installed and used in accordance with the applicable standards, regulations and manufacturer’s instructions. Overall, in terms of photobiological safety, LED grow lights have similar characteristics to those of any other lighting technology.

Just googling "grow lights" does not instill confidence in plant parents who want to care for their plants and give them the light they need without their home looking like a terrarium for a lizard. Unfortunately, most grow lights that are available just give off those vibes. Thankfully, though, there are a few hacks to make your grow lights look better.

If you’re not familiar with grow lights you might not understand why you may need them. “People use grow lights to keep their favorite plants alive all year round," explains Zachary Kostantewicz of Soltech Solutions. "No matter where someone is, grow lights allow you to grow a variety of plants in your space. For most people, it’s a combination of wanting a certain plant in their space as a decor piece and needing more light to support the growth of that plant.”

You might have a plant that needs a lot of light but you want to place it away from the window. Having grow lights allows you to do that because of the way that they work. “Grow lights work by producing the vital blue and red wavelengths that plants need to sustain and grow. They enable people to do it anywhere there is a light fixture instead of taking their plants outdoors,” explains Kostantewicz.

You can buy lots of grow light panels but they usually look really tacky and cheap. The best way to utilize these without feeling like you’re living in a greenhouse is by attaching them to the underside of shelves. You can create the ultimate #plantshelfie by using two to three shelves, a few plants, and some grow lights. Place your plants that are comfortable with low light on the top shelf. Plants that need something a little extra can go on the lower shelves so you can attach grow light panels on the bottom of the shelf above it.

Some of the best solutions to ugly grow lights is by opting for one bulbinstead of a bar or panel. Less is often more when it comes to grow lights and you can find high quality versions that are only one bulb. This will help avoid having to attach bars to your table ledge. Instead, you can mount them from the ceiling or place them on a shelf.

This next tip goes hand in hand with the single bulbs. Sometimes these grow lights will come with really long extension cords that you may want to hide. Given that you often have to hang the grow lights from up high, hiding that cord isn’t always an option. So instead wrap the cord with macrame. It’s really easy to do a box stitch around the entire thing. Plus, macrame is having a moment and it’ll create a nice boho design aesthetic.

If you have a lamp that you love but you don’t really use it that often, swap the bulb out for a grow light. The best lamps to do this are the ones without shades—like a desk lamp. You should be able to find a bulb that fits into your lamp, just make sure to check the wattage so you aren"t stretching your lamp past its limits. Your grow light will blend in seamlessly with the rest of your decor.

Did you know you can find grow light frames? They can be mounted on the wall and can house your favorite plants like artwork. You can buy these, but you could also get crafty and make one yourself. You’ll need some grow light bars, something you can put your plants in (a self-watering pot would be the best so you don’t overwater your plants), and then a frame. Attach the grow light to the top of the frame and then attach the frame to your pot. It’s a unique way to display your plants.

The best thing to do is keep things simple, like the Scandinavians tend to do. Finding grow lights that are compact and sleek is your best bet when it comes to making grow lights look good. It will be easy to make grow lights look nice if they can easily tie into your decor. It’s going to be hard to tone down any clunky, metal grow light with purple lights. Opt for slim grow bars, or light fixtures that can blend in with your home design.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

We all know plants need light to grow and be healthy. Indoor plants often suffer from too little sun and can benefit from artificial light. Most lighting options today feature LEDs due to their long life and low energy use. Should you use LED lights to grow plants? The traditional grow lights were fluorescent or incandescent. Let’s see what the difference between LED lights and grow lights stacks up to and which is better. Keep reading for LED grow light info that will help you make an informed decision before you purchase plant lights.

Additionally, there is no gas, mercury, lead, breakable filament, and the bulbs are tougher and harder to break. As opposed to many other grow lights, LEDs are also cooler and can be situated closer to plants without a chance of burning leaves.