Power Consumption: LED Grow Lights vs. HPS light LED Grow Lights are well-known for consuming less electricity than HPS (high pressure sodium) lights, but the statistics can be confusing. Some sources claim that LED lights use 90 per cent less power than HPS lights, while others quote a more modest, though substantial savings of 50 per cent. Every indoor garden is unique and will differ somewhat in the power needed by the grow lights and the energy used to cool and ventilate the area. Using LED Grow Lights improves the energy efficiency of your grow in several ways.
LED Grow Lights need less electricity to run than HPS lights and have a longer bulb life. Over time, HPS bulbs lose efficiency, becoming dimmer while still consuming the same amount or even more power. Over the course of an HPS bulb’s lifetime, the actual operating cost of the bulb increases sharply, whereas an LED bulb consumes only a little more power near the end of its life. After the initial set-up cost, power is the biggest expense of indoor gardening, so the efficiency of your grow bulbs makes a big impact on the overall cost of your garden.
HPS lights put off more heat than LED Grow Lights, which often come with integrated heat sinks. All that heat exhaust from the HPS lights requires ventilation, adding to your indoor garden costs. LED Grow Lights put out less than half the heat exhaust of HPS lights, saving you a tidy sum in ventilation expenses. A room full of HPS grow bulbs will require quite a bit more cooling than an indoor garden equipped with LED bulbs. Both gardens will require some air conditioning, but you will need to run the air conditioning system about twice as much for HPS grow lights as when using LED Grow Lights.
When you calculate the energy savings of running LED Grow Lights versus HPS lights, LED bulbs come out the clear winner. Thanks to the longer lifespan of LED bulbs and the fact that they do not lose much efficiency as they age, your savings only increase over time. Besides LED bulbs’ lower energy consumption, they also require less air conditioning and ventilation than HPS lights, raising the overall energy efficiency of your indoor garden. Though the specific statistics will vary between indoor gardens, you can expect LED Grow Lights to be significantly more cost effective in the long run than HPS grow bulbs.