LED Grow Lights Save Money and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
SANTA ROSA, Calif., July 2, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- It's been well documented that LED Grow Lights will save you money when compared to their HPS counterparts, but the benefits of LED Grow Lights extend well beyond your own home grow. As LED Grow Lights use 40-50% less energy than HPS alternatives, the benefits of growing with LED scale alongside the size of your grow op.
As commercial cannabis cultivation has exploded throughout the United States, so has the energy use where those commercial grow ops are located. According to a 2016 article by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the summer after Oregon legalized recreational marijuana, Pacific Power in Portland experienced seven blackouts traced to cannabis production facilities. Forty-five percent of Denver's electrical "load growth" is for electricity to power cannabis facilities, and as of February 2018, nearly 4% of Denver's electricity was devoted entirely to commercial cannabis facilities. Much of this power use can be attributed to the use of High-Pressure Sodium grow lights. Increased energy use directly results in the increased risk of climate change, a reduction in the supply of energy available in high population density areas, and higher energy costs for residents.
Running HPS grow lights in a commercial environment requires considerable investment in equipment to offset the heat that traditional grow lights add to a grow room. A commercial cannabis facility running HPS grow lights will need to invest heavily in cooling systems to regulate the temperature of the facility, and equipment to regulate humidity. The amount of heat emitted by lighting is one of the indicators of its efficiency. Based on the overall performance, around 80% of the energy emitted by HPS and CFLs comes out as heat, while LED grow lights release only 15% to 25% of their energy as heat.
Double-Ended lighting systems such as HPS/Metal Halide/HID, require you to change out your light bulbs frequently between growth stages, adding to your additional costs and waste from harvest to harvest. DE bulbs also contain toxic mercury, which is extremely harmful to the environment as well as poses a threat to your personal health as it attacks the central nervous system and can affect your motor skills while growing.
If you're planning a long-term growing operation, the lifespan of a particular grow light is as important as its efficiency and the upfront cost. Usually, HPS grow lights last about 10,000 hours on average, while CFL grow lights will run for around 8,000 hours. As a result, they need to be replaced with new ones every 2 years or less. LED grow lights, on the other hand, last much longer than the above options, as they can work up to 50,000 or even 100,000 hours. Therefore, you can use them for 5 or 10 years before they need replacement.
With all of these short and long term benefits and reduction of carbon footprint by growing with indoor LED grow lights, the commercial cannabis industry is quickly embracing them. Available online and through hundreds of retailers nationwide, LED grow light companies such as Kind LED make advanced horticulture lighting technology accessible to both professional and recreational growers worldwide.
SOURCE Kind LED Grow Lights
