Over the past twenty years grow lights have evolved.
Metal halide vs led for growing.
Let s take cmh vs led grow lights head on.
It s your job to adequately determine a few factors before you begin searching for the best grow light whether it be metal halide hps led or cfl bulbs.
The type of gas and chemicals used in hid grow bulbs like mercury and metal halides react with each other to give you light.
When factoring in the spectral efficiency led grow lights can offer metal halides are significantly less efficient.
This can already be seen in the plethora of led grow light products in the market boasting their comparatively passive operation which is usually not possible when running a metal halide bulb.
But keep in mind that much of the light that the light meter is reading from a metal halide isn t even visible.
That heat is pretty intense and will radiate from the bulb.
One of the biggest advantages to growing with leds as compared to growing with high intensity discharge hid bulbs like high pressure sodium hps and metal halide mh bulbs is that leds consume a fraction of the electricity as much as 60 less.
Although these two examples are polar opposites they still ask the same question.
Mh lights are more efficient at creating light than fluorescent and induction lights but are less efficient than hps and much less efficient than leds.
Unlike led s hid grow lights work because of gasses not wires or chips.
Grow lights have evolved from heavy magnetic in efficient ballasts and bulky reflectors to ultra efficient dimmable and spectrum tunable light emitting diodes led and ceramic metal halide cmh all in one fixtures.
Efficiency of metal halide vs.
Another advantage of leds is their low heat signature.
A big advantage of leds over metal halide grow lights is their significantly lower heat output.
We have an array of modern light systems that can grow plants like ceramic metal halides cmh and light emitting diode led systems.
The modern hobby and commercial cultivator now have the power to dial in spectrums specific to the plant strain they are growing.