How to choose lighting: ID your problems

With grow lights, there is no “one size fits all” solution. Before you choose lighting, make sure that you think through your situation very carefully, understanding the problem you’re trying to solve.

Start off by looking carefully at your problems.

Your problems aren’t necessarily obvious. You might think, “my problem is I need to light my crop.” A lot of growers miss the fact that providing light isn’t the only way that lighting interacts with their farm. Lighting often has to solve problems like:

I have too much heat
I have a tight budget
I have too little heat
I have a bigger budget next year than this year
I have a low capital expense budget

Of these, the most common problem is going to be heat.

Lights produce a lot of heat, regardless of which kind you’re using. That represents a lot of wasted electricity. If you’re doing supplemental lighting in a greenhouse, you can use that waste heat to heat your greenhouse. But if you’re indoors, that heat could accumulate and you’ll spend money removing it.

Read more at Upstart University