In our most recent post, I mentioned LED grow lights for growing plants indoors. That prompted a lot of questions from people asking which types of LED grow lights to get. The main question concerned the wattage. Most were trying to decide between a 1000 watt plant light or a 600 watt one. Both are great, but the 600w variety is more efficient. Any one of the 600 watt LED grow lights in this list are great choices. Basically, you get more bang for your buck with those four lights.
Thousand watt lights are the most expensive and the most powerful, apart from lights with more wattage, but there aren’t too many of those. The best 1000w lights give you a coverage area of 5 by 5 feet. A 600w light, which is much cheaper, gives you a coverage area of 4 by 4 feet. This means you’re not really losing a lot of coverage, but you’re saving a lot of money.
Of course, coverage area is not the only concern. 1000 watt lights are more powerful and will give you more output throughout the coverage area. Most LED manufacturers use PAR to measure light output. 1000w lights will give you much higher PAR values than a 600w light. At least in the middle. When you take the whole coverage area into consideration, the difference is not as great. Again, the money you save is worth more here than the larger PAR values.
So let’s say you have a area that measures 20 by 20 feet. If you went with thousand watt lights, you would need 16 of them to cover this area, assuming a 5 x 5 coverage per light. With six-hundred watt lights, assuming a 4 x 4 coverage, you would need 25.
Most of the good thousand watt lights cost between $1600 and $1800, although they can go much higher. Let’s assume $1700, in which case it would cost $27,200 to cover this area. A good 600 watt light costs around one thousand dollars. Some cost more, some cost less, but let’s go with $1000. That puts the total cost at $25,000.
Since you have more lights, the light reaching each plant is stronger. In fact, each plant might get its own light. This is an added benefit. Not only are 600w LED grow lights going to be cheaper, they actually give you a better light coverage per plant. Even though the light is not as strong, you don’t have as many gaps in coverage. This is the main reason why we recommend getting 600 watt LED plant lights instead of 1000w ones.
When it comes to actual brands, your best options are the big ones. Personally, I feel Black Dog LED makes the best lights. Moreover, they just brought out a new line, the PhytoMax 2 line, and it is unbelievable. These lights are not cheap, but if you can afford them, these are by far the best.
Cirrus LED also makes a great 600 watt LED grow light. These are high technology lights. You can customize them using an app on your phone, whereas the Black Dog lights can not be customized at all. Which light is best for you, depends on how you feel about the ability to customize. Some want the simplicity of the Black Dog, others want the full customization of the Cirrus.
California Lightworks also make a good 600w fixture. They are one of the industry leaders for a good reason. They’ve been making great lights for a long time and they are proven to work. I prefer the other two, since they are newer, but California light works is always coming out with new lights too. Their newest line is fully customizable using a controller that you have to buy separately. But, with that controller, you can control up to 1000 lights.
Finally, there are companies like Advanced LED, Lush Lighting and Kind LED. These are all also good companies, but it’s been a few years since they have brought out a new light. For this reason, I would go with one of the brands mentioned above or wait for one of these three firms to bring out a new line of lights. That should be happening soon and when it does, I’m sure they will be on par with the other ones. After all, they have a long history of making quality lights.
If you are looking to grow fruits or vegetables in your indoor garden and you have decided to go with LED grow lights because they use less power and emit less heat, then 600 watt lights are your best option. They give you the best combination of lower price and high output and are just the most efficient all around.
