I have been growing indoors off and on for over 30 years. As with most things, you get what you pay for. Plants can be grown under almost any type of light but some are better than others. I have frown plants under basic 20 watt florescent lights and achieved unimpressive results to say the least. HID lighting (Metal Halide / High Pressure Sodium) works excellent, but uses quite a bit more electricity and create a lot more heat. There's always going to be a trade off.....better lights will cost more too. Now people are leaning towards LED lighting which is more efficient and produce less heat. These are supposed to be better than HID lighting and the price tag reflects it. I have very little personal experience with LED lighting but from what I have seen they look pretty good. Recently I have heard of "PLASMA LIGHTS" which are supposed to be the best you can get but the cost is outrageous becuse it's such new technology. Unless you have $$$ to burn and are going to go "all out", I wouldn't suggest these right away. I currently use a 1000 watt Metal Halide light to vegetate my garden, and a 1000 watt High Pressure Sodium light for flowering. I have had amazing results and the heat is manageable if you properly duct it away with blower fans. As for the increase in the electric bill, I just bite the bullet on that one and pay the extra money. It's worth it to me. Try to stay away from standard incandescent or florescent lights. They will work but not well in my experience. One last note,....it's my understanding the there is no better light for plants than sunlight. Some sort of atrium or skylight setup would be interesting to see results for. Hope this helps someone....Good luck!
There are three major types of lighting systems available right now: incandescent, fluorescent, and high intensity discharge. Incandescent lights are horribly inefficient (especially the screw-in "grow bulb" type) and really not an acceptable option for plant growth. Although they are inexpensive to purchase, their cost of operation makes them the costliest source of light.
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I have been growing indoors off and on for over 30 years. As with most things, you get what you pay for. Plants can be grown under almost any type of light but some are better than others. I have frown plants under basic 20 watt florescent lights and achieved unimpressive results to say the least. HID lighting (Metal Halide / High Pressure Sodium) works excellent, but uses quite a bit more electricity and create a lot more heat. There's always going to be a trade off.....better lights will cost more too. Now people are leaning towards LED lighting which is more efficient and produce less heat. These are supposed to be better than HID lighting and the price tag reflects it. I have very little personal experience with LED lighting but from what I have seen they look pretty good. Recently I have heard of "PLASMA LIGHTS" which are supposed to be the best you can get but the cost is outrageous becuse it's such new technology. Unless you have $$$ to burn and are going to go "all out", I wouldn't suggest these right away.
I currently use a 1000 watt Metal Halide light to vegetate my garden, and a 1000 watt High Pressure Sodium light for flowering. I have had amazing results and the heat is manageable if you properly duct it away with blower fans. As for the increase in the electric bill, I just bite the bullet on that one and pay the extra money. It's worth it to me. Try to stay away from standard incandescent or florescent lights. They will work but not well in my experience.
One last note,....it's my understanding the there is no better light for plants than sunlight. Some sort of atrium or skylight setup would be interesting to see results for.
Hope this helps someone....Good luck!
If you growing indoors 1000watt metal helide for grow and high pressure sodium for flower ,why muk around,depends what you are growing
There are three major types of lighting systems available right now: incandescent, fluorescent, and high intensity discharge. Incandescent lights are horribly inefficient (especially the screw-in "grow bulb" type) and really not an acceptable option for plant growth. Although they are inexpensive to purchase, their cost of operation makes them the costliest source of light.