60 Degree vs. 90 Degree Lens in LED Grow Lights – service lighting

LED grow lights use different chips and different lenses to project the light in different ways.  The main types of lens are 120 degree, 90 degree and 60 degree.  In the early days of LED grow lights almost all of the major brands used 120 degree lens.  When Advanced LED began testing different LED chips and other factors it quickly became obvious that the lens focus would be a critical decision.  After testing the above mentioned lens types among other more focused lens variations we decided that a light with all 90 degree lenses would provide the intensity and the coverage our growers wanted.  Why did we choose all 90 degree?

Our decision to go with all 90 degree lenses is based on three factors:

1.  Light Intensity

2.  Light Coverage

3.  Light Blend (color blend)

First, we wanted our lights to have high enough intensity to provide a full saturation for every flowering plant and produce dense, ripe, heavy harvests.  The 120 degree lens lacked intensity where the 90 and 60 degree lenses packed a much larger punch and provided the yields our growers required. (tested with both Quantum Flux Meter and field tested with experienced growers)

Second,  we wanted our lights to have enough coverage area for our growers to feel they were able to light their garden efficiently and not be upset about very low coverage.  The 120 degree lens provided the largest coverage area but was disqualified due to lack of light intensity.  The 60 degree lens provided the highest center point intensity but drastically reduced the footprint of the light.  The 90 degree lens provided much larger coverage than the 60 degree lens and also met our intensity requirements without sacrificing yield per watt.  (also tested with PAR meters and field tests)

Third, we have tested many real time grows with experienced growers who were able to provide us data regarding colors and the blend of colors.  We wanted our lights to blend each color of light across the garden enough that receptors on the plant were getting a share of each of our 11 wavelengths of color output.  At this point we eliminated the 120 degree lens and the 90 and 60 degree were in competition with the 60 losing on coverage.  The color blend test was the final decision point for our team because it was obvious that the 60 degree lenses were not blending color as well as the 90 degree lens.  Each diode in the light with 60 degree lenses was focusing light to a small point and you could tell where some parts of the garden were over saturated in one color.  Although this could have been remedied with more testing or various angled LEDs we decided the coverage area of the 60 degree lenses was too small.

In the end, it’s a simple fact that the 90 degree lenses we use provides high light intensity with large coverage areas compared to 60 degree lenses and therefore our choice for the optimal focus of our LED grow lights.

Less Heat is Important When Growing – service lighting

Heat in any grow operation or greenhouse is an important factor.  If your plant species is grown under optimal conditions then it will be maintained usually within a 10 degree F range.  If the plants trend higher for parts of the day it may take a fatal turn for your harvests either way.  If the night times get too cool or the days too hot it is always a potential for problems.

Heat in plants can cause a multitude of problems for the average indoor grower:

Drying of media:  Growing media is a particular part of each plant that converts chemical material to plant particles  and therefore into plant yields be it fruit, flowers or vegetables.  If the growing media is to dry the plant will dry out and not be able to transfer this material.  If the growing media is too dry and gets over watered the plant with essentially drown.

Lack of oxygen:  If the plants leaves need CO2 to breathe the plants roots need O2 to breathe, yes that’s right, oxygen.   Roots need O2(oxygen) for breathing and growing in order to uptake as much as possible for growth.  Plants that are over watered using LED grow lights tend to struggle with flowering and fruiting stages due to less oxygen uptake in the rooting stages.  Watch that your roots are getting enough O2 during growth with either a bubbler or a dry/wet stage during flowering or veg stages.

Watch your water during growth!

LED grow lights grow with much less heat or very little at all to worry about.  With our 3w LED grow lights you get the best of the light output with the least of heat input into your gardens.  This is why so many customers choose to buy from Advanced LED over and over again year after year.  We are the leader in the grow light business that helps customers limit their heat and maximize their yields in a micro garden or greenhouse setting.  We do not use any fake Chinese LEDs or other cheap parts and we keep our entire grow light line top notch.  You cannot lose when you chose an Advanced LED grow light.

15w LED Grow Lights Pack a Huge Punch – service lighting

As we have discussed in previous blog posts our new 15w SpectraBoost LED grow spotlights have arrived.  These new lights are built to deliver specific wavelengths of light to build more vegetation, flowers or increase your harvest quality.  We have found that an HPS light with our new SpectraBoost Blue can do much better in vegetative cycles and this can increase the density and production value of the garden.  Since HPS lights lack blue wavelengths our SpectraBoost Blue is perfect and takes less than 15w of power per 9 sqft of grow space.

Our SpectraBoost IR and our SpectraBoost Deep Red are both great in combination wiht Metal Halide lights to increase the Red spectrums of color your plants get during flowering cycles due to lack of red colors from the Metal Halide.  Again, these powerful spotlights only consume 15w of power but pack a big punch that can have real impacts on your gardens yield and quality.  Our SpectraBoost LED grow lights use a single focused lens with 15w of LEDs clustered into a tight compact light that will penetrate your gardens canopy with the color of your choice.

Remember you can always add more colors or combine those colors if you like based on your preference.