A crash course into LED growing

Despite LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) being around from the 60s and indoor growing being practiced quite extensively the past decades, a successful marriage of the two doesn't seem to have happened yet. As a technology, it failed to grasp the imagination of growers and most see it as an inferior lighting that at best can be used as supplement. But do LEDs produce inferior lighting conditions than traditional HID lamps, or is it that the technology has not yet been used to its optimum level?

Despite LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) being around from the 60s and indoor growing being practiced quite extensively the past decades, a successful marriage of the two doesn’t seem to have happened yet. As a technology, it failed to grasp the imagination of growers and most see it as an inferior lighting that at best can be used as supplement. But do LEDs produce inferior lighting conditions than traditional HID lamps, or is it that the technology has not yet been used to its optimum level?

That type of light let a lot of people down since despite being quite decent at the vegetative stage, when it came to flowering it was an utter failure. Fluffy buds without substance along with burned plants due to overuse of red, were some of the main problems that left LEDs with a shattered reputation in regard to growing. At the same time the panels of that period were ridiculously expensive while their results were dubious at best.

From that point onwards things started happening as developers had an acknowledged spectrum that was providing a working base for them to build on. At the same time new a new philosophy entered the field of panel design and that was the utilisation of passive cooling in contrast to active cooling that was exclusively used up to that period. Passive cooling requires a sufficient heatsink that will absorb and dissipate to the environment the heat produced by the LEDs without the assistance of any fans as it is the case with active cooling technology. That might sound as a minor change in design but it’s a major factor regarding growing. Aside from the fact that panels who use passive cooling have no internal fans that will break down, they carry the extra advantage or instantly releasing the heat into the environment from the whole body and not just a focus point as active cooling does. When it comes to indoor growing where things are quite tight regarding space, a well ventilated tent will have no problem operating with panels that use passive cooling, while active cooling panels require sufficient headroom where the heat will be channeled by the working fans and later dissipated to the environment.

To give credit where it’s due, a lot of this wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the countless diy-ers who have been experimenting with LED panels by creating their own contraptions. The knowledge base that was created in mechanical but also in grower fora regarding the design and manufacturing of a LED panel proved invaluable to manufacturers who jumped into the new ideas. Concurrently a lot of new manufacturers entered the industry as some of the designs developed were simple enough to be produced at a low cost.

Today’s LED panel industry reminds us the computer industry during the 70s. There isn’t a set standard, all approaches are available and none can say how things will develop from now on, there are limitless possibilities and the flexibility they provide is the driving power behind LED panels. We are at a crossroad of changing technologies (High Intensity Discharge lamps will go our of production in a couple of years time) and the gap that has to be filled it’s enormous. At the same time there is no way that the industry will operate with 20th century rules of mass production and of “one product for all uses”.

At this moment you’re probably expecting a list of the pros and cons over growing with LED panels. The obvious ones are the less electricity consumed over the duration of the grow and the better environmental conditions due to the minimal heat produced by LEDs in comparison to HID lamps. The cons are that so far most of the panels in the market failed to produce constant results that would trigger a swift change to our growing habits. However, with the diversity of LED panels in circulation at the moment and new models surfacing every other day generalising over them is like expecting all cars to be the same. It might as well be that the biggest strength over growing with LEDs is the amazing customisation that the grower can have in his garden. Active and passive cooling can be used differently in varied growing conditions and the same applies regarding the lenses that LEDs are equipped with. Some panels might excel in micro-growing conditions while being totally ineffective for large grows and visa-versa.

In the next article of this series on LED panels and growing, we will be closely looking at different models in the market. We will look at the diverse philosophies regarding the concepts behind LED panel manufacturing and we will present how different models are suited for different growing techniques and what type is best for your own particular way of growing.