What are grow lights?
A grow light or grow light system is a system that utilizes modern electric light technology to artificially simulate the natural environment of plants that encourages photosynthesis. Grow lights are indoor light systems that allow the owner to grow a wide variety of plants indoors that would otherwise be confined outdoors or even to specific outdoor environments.
Grow lights mimic the sun, providing a wide spectrum of light, luminous efficacy, and color temperature that is ideal for plants and that mimics the nature light environment.
Recent strides in grow light technology offer purchasers a wide variety of grow lights, including fluorescent grow lights, high-pressure sodium grow lights (HPS), metal halide grow lights (MH), LED grow lights, and several other options.
The most common use of grow lights is for food production. Indoor grow lights provide gardeners with a wide variety of options for mediums to grow their plants in addition to soil, including hydroponics. These indoor grow lights are often used at the industrial sector for mass food production, but are also used by homeowners, growing hobbyists, and a wide variety of new users as the technology goes down in price.
There are many options available in addition to the type of grow light, the medium used to grow in, and others. Among these options include things such as reflectors and other methods meant to increase indoor grow efficiency.
Indoor gardening with grow lights, especially hydroponics, is becoming a large industry with thousands of growers. While some lighting systems come all-in-one, the higher end grow lights come with two or three main parts: the light ballast, lamp/hood, and reflectors. Light ballasts provide voltage to power the grow light lamp indoors, and is separated from the grow lamp. This is because it uses high voltage. It is usually connected with a separate power cord.
There are two leading types of grow lamps: Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium. There are other, newer, more innovative light systems, such as LED grow lights, but these are new and not yet proven to be more effective. HPS and MH light systems are based on the type of gas that is inside the grow light.
Reflectors help grow light systems become more efficient and effective. They capture light lumens that would otherwise be absorbed by things other than the plant (commonly simply the wall). By using a reflector, you can get the most bang for your buck when it comes to grow lights.
Grow light systems are evolving and becoming more and more efficient as prices drop. There are many related aspects to indoor growing, and dozens of ways to increase efficiency (such as using CO2, hydroponics, aquaponics, etc.). We will discuss these later in additional posts and pages.
Overall, indoor growing is a huge industry that is getting bigger and bigger. Grow lights are much more efficient than they were even just a few years ago, and they technology shows no sign of slowing down.