If you’re not growing with LEDs, you should be. Here’s why!
One of the inescapable aspects of Hydroponic growing indoors is that you will need to provide lighting for your plants to grow and unfortunately your standard kitchen lightbulb isn’t going to do the job. Specialised horticultural lighting provides the necessary light spectrum to facilitate plant growth. For many years the primary way of providing this lighting was through High Pressure Sodium (HPS) Bulbs powered by a ballast, which is basically a power conditioner box that sits between the power point and the bulb.
Now don’t get me wrong, HPS setups have always performed well and for a good while, were rivalled by none, however there are four main issues with HPS lighting:
- They are expensive to run as they consume a lot of electricity per bulb, and their energy consumption is equal to their output. For example a 600watt bulb pulls 600watts from the wall and outputs 600watts.
- They generate a significant amount of heat, leading to temperature control issues, especially in our hotter months.
- HPS Lighting is made up of multiple components; a ballast, a light fitting, a reflector, and the bulb – that’s 4 separate pieces of equipment per light source.
- Bulbs need to be replaced every 12-months.
Other types of bulbs came along like Ceramic Metal Halides (CMH) which improved on the functionality and design of the HPS but still failed to really alleviate these issues, which led to the creation of LED-based lighting.
It should be noted that when LEDs first came out a few years ago, they didn’t perform as well as their bulb counterparts and were very expensive, but thankfully the technology has progressed to a point where LEDs are absolutely on top when it comes to value for money and performance.
LEDs shine in their energy consumption vs output, for example at minimum your average LED is going to usually be twice as efficient as a HPS Bulb. For example, a 300watt LED pulls 300watts from the wall but will output around 600watts or more depending on the efficiency; this means you can get the same output as your 600watt HPS bulb for half the energy cost of running it!
LEDs also produce way less heat in comparison to bulbs, meaning less excess heat is generated in your grow space, meaning you will see far less heat-related growth issues, and you won’t need to be smashing your energy bill running air conditioning or dozens of fans to keep your crop cool (There’s some extra power bill savings right there too!)
LEDs combined all the components of old school lights into one complete unit, making setup much simpler. Another benefit to LEDs is that they last much, much longer than bulbs do, with an average lifespan of about 50, 000hrs (About 10 years!) vs the 12-month lifespan of bulbs.
Like most products out there, not all LEDs are created equal, some are more efficient than others and some have varying lifespans etc. There are many great manufacturers out there, but we believe there’s no one better in terms of efficiency, performance, and lifespan to help you make the switch then Lumatek!
Lumatek has been one of the horticultural lighting industry giants for a fair few years now and chances are if you have used (or still are using) HPS, you’ve powered them using everyone’s favourite purple ballasts. Lumatek, being as seasoned as they are, understand the standards and quality expected from methods and setups that growers are familiar with. They understand that switching out something as integral as lighting in your setup is a scary process, and they want to ensure that if you make the jump to LEDs that you don’t regret it. That’s why, as with every product Lumatek makes, their range of LEDs is sure to leave you feeling confident in your choice…
Introducing the Lumatek Zeus Range!
Lumatek’s flagship range of indoor LED lighting is, simply put: incredible.
From the ground up, these linear, multi-light bar fixtures are built to perform, last, and look good while doing it.
The array of LED bars is designed to allow for maximum heat dissipation whilst maintaining a uniform spread of light to ensure optimal performance. These bars can also be removed and replaced if they stop working (which is honestly a rare event as Lumatek’s build quality is outstanding). The beauty of the design of these lights is that if one of the bars on the array stops working the rest of the light will continue to function, meaning that while you’re waiting for a replacement bar you’re not left without a light! Compared to other LED manufacturers who have a quantum board style design (Where all the diodes are glued to a single solid sheet of metal), these lights have superior control over the heat they generate, which is incredible for our hot summers, and they have a more robust design that removes the need to replace your entire light if something goes wrong.
The Zeus are built using high quality Lumatek drivers and top bin LEDs from LUMLED and Osram generating a full-spectrum light source ideal for veg and flowering cycles. These things are super-efficient (almost 3x more efficient than a HPS bulb) and durable. Additionally, these lights have a Clear Glue protection cover technology on the LED bars, resulting in higher light transmittance of 99% without light loss, extended lifetime of diodes, extra corrosion resistance and high waterproof of IP65, with an average lifespan of 60,000 hours. However, if in the unlikely event of failure for whatever unforeseen reason, these lights all come with a 5-year warranty.
Lumatek LED drivers are intelligent and feature full circuit protection including over/under voltage, short circuit and over temperature protection. Lumatek Zeus LED drivers also feature auto-power increase/decrease to match the amount of light bars connected to fixture. All Lumatek LED fixtures are CE certified LVD and EMC compliant.
The main goal of LEDs is to balance upmost light quality (spectra) with light quantity (intensity and duration) to provide a single light source for the entire grow cycle, and the way this is achieved is through the ability to dim the light without losing efficiency of the light. This allows the Zeus models to be utilised effectively for all stages of growth.
These lights all can be controlled externally via all sorts of universal control systems as well as Lumatek’s official light controllers, meaning if you’re tech savvy or love to have your setup running like a single well-oiled machine these lights will work spectacularly.
Here’s a quick rundown on the main models of the Lumatek Zeus Range:
ZEUS 465W PRO 2.9
Sporting five 93watt light bars for a total of 465watts, this light is perfect for a 1.2m x 1.2m grow space or tent. As with the whole range, these lights have an Efficacy of up to 2.9 µmol/J. The 465 PRO 2.9 produces very high levels of PPF of 1353 µmol/s, which is the equivalent of running just over three separate 400watt, or two 600watt HPS bulbs while only pulling 465watts from the wall!
Check out the Lumatek Zeus 465watt Pro 2.9 Here!
ZEUS 600W PRO 2.9
The ZEUS 600W PRO 2.9 is rocking six 100w light bars to hit that 600watt total. This light is perfect for a 1.5m x 1.5m grow space. As with the whole range, these lights have an Efficacy of up to 2.9 µmol/J. The 600w PRO 2.9 produces very high levels of PPF of 1770 µmol/s – which is the equivalent of running almost 3 600w HPS Bulbs HPS Bulb whilst only pulling 600 watts from the wall when the light is turned all the way up. It really proves how crazy efficient these lights are!
Check out the Lumatek Zeus 600watt Pro 2.9 Here!
LUMATEK ZEUS 1000W PRO
With a frame bolstering an impressive array of ten 100w Light bars, the 1000w PRO is a beast of a light fit for a 2m x 1.5m grow space or tent. As with all the Zeus range the 1000w Pro has a very high efficacy of up to 2.9 µmol/J and produces extremely high levels of PPF of 2925 µmol/s – that’s like running just shy of three 1000watt HPS bulbs from one light!
Check out the Lumatek Zeus 1000watt Pro Here!
OTHER MODELS:
There are a few other models of LED that Lumatek make that we think are important to mention while we on the topic of Lumatek. While some of these aren’t part of the Zeus range, they’re still worth checking out!
ATS Series:
you grow in a smaller space than 1.2m x 1.2m, such as a 1m x 1m or smaller, don’t worry you can still harness the power of Lumatek’s impressive LED Performance by checking out either the ATS 300watt Pro or the ATS 200watt PRO, which are smaller LEDs made by Lumatek fit for those smaller grow spaces, with the 300w Pro being the most ideal for the 1m x 1m space and the 200w Pro being for those even smaller spaces. These lights are still exceptional for their application and are worth checking out!
On the other side of the spectrum if you’re a grower who utilises CO2, be sure to check out the specialised and ridiculously powerful ZEUS 1000W Xtreme PPFD CO2, designed specifically to be used with the supplementation of CO2, this thing is the most powerful grow light on the market. It does this by concentrating those ten 100w Light bars of the regular 1000W into a 1.5m x 1.5m area.
Check out the Lumatek ZEUS 1000W Xtreme PPFD CO2 here!
100W Full-Spectrum Individual Supplemental Light LED:
These independent 100w Light bars are awesome for adding underlighting or increasing your light coverage if you increase your grow space. The cover 1.2m x 0.25m of space, and have an efficacy of 2.9 μmol/J. Each bar also produces a PPF of 295 µmol/s, which is like adding a 300watt bulb to your setup. The also make excellent propagation lights if you have the height or have them dimmed via an external light controller.
Check out the Lumatek 100w Full-Spectrum Supplemental Light Bar Here!
Overall, the Zeus Range is incredible, and are definitively some of the best indoor Lights you can buy at a consumer level; they have amazing performance, the build quality is outstanding, the life expectancy on them is superior and they just look amazing sitting in the ceiling of your grow space. If you’re in the market for either a new LED or making the switch from bulbs, it’d be a no brainer to go with the mighty Zeus!