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| In This Issue: LED Grow Lighting Coverage by Mounting Height Featured Product ABP3 The SolarOasis Aqua-Bar ABP3 Professional model with 3 LED clusters will provide expert results in fresh water aquariums up to 20" deep. Receive 10% off of your purchase of the ABP3 by simply typing the words "LED Gardener" into the special requests portion of our shopping cart. Buy Now Care to Comment? The LED Gardener appreciates all the input we receive from our readers. If you would like to submit an article or pictures; or you would like to comment on a current article please send submissions and comments or questions to: admin@led-grow-master.com You are receiving this email because you subscribed at led-grow-master.com If you do not wish to receive the newsletter: Request your name removed by emailing angela@led-grow-master.com |
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| March, 2011 Volume 6, Issue 3 |
LED Grow Lighting Coverage by Mounting Height
This is why when we turn on a light bulb in our home- the entire room lights up and not just the area beneath the bulb. When using these bulbs to grow plants, a bulky external reflector is used to direct more of the light toward the intended grow area. Even with this reflector, turning on the bulb will still scatter light throughout the room because it is reflecting from all angles within the external reflector. This reality makes HPS unwelcome in most living areas and causes light pollution (aka bad neighbor relations) from artificially lit greenhouses. LEDs work differently. Each individual LED is fitted with a built-in reflector that ensures the light shines only where it is directed. LED manufacturers are able to choose the angle at which light exits the array. The effect of different angles of light dispersion is basically what you see when you are using a nozzle on your garden hose. A wide angle of dispersion causes a gentle misting over a large area, while a narrow angle of dispersion causes a concentrated jet stream hitting a very small area. The same amount of water comes through the hose on either setting- the adjustment just dictates how much area the water will cover. Either the whole plot receives a sip of water- or one plant gets blasted with the jet stream. Most gardeners find there is a setting between these two extremes which best serves their purpose. In LED terms- we can take two LED arrays that are identical in light output and give one a 180 degree beam spread and one a 14 degree beam spread. The LED array with the 180 degree beam spread is going to cover a much larger area but, the light is diluted through the whole 180 degrees giving your plants a "misting" of light. The 14 degree beam spread LED array is going to provide you with an extremely powerful stream of light but the light would be limited to a very small area directly beneath the LEDs. LGM LED grow lighting is designed around the middle ground. SolarOasis incorporated two beam spreads into our products- 45 degrees and 33 degrees. The beams are narrow enough to provide a concentrated source of light, but wide enough to cover an area much larger than the unit itself- allowing sunlight through to the plant canopy in applications where sunlight is available. The LED light is exiting each cluster at one of these angles- making a cone shaped light emission. The cone of light gets larger and larger the further from the source. When we judge coverage on a light source such as HPS, a 4' x 4' recommendation would suggest that this is the area that will receive the most light. Because the light is scattering- plants outside of the 4' x 4' area are still receiving light. This is not the case with LEDs. Only plants that are within the cone will receive light. Because of this focus, LED grow lighting can eliminate light pollution concerns and make them more welcome in living areas; It also makes the coverage area a very important guideline. When determining how many LED light bars one needs- the plot size is not the only dimension to consider. For example, let's say you are planning an herb garden for your kitchen counter and you determine that you will utilize a planter that is 1' wide by 3' long. While the planter only contains seedlings- the 1' x 3' coverage would apply but you need to keep in mind that as your plants grow- they may become larger than the planter itself so long term coverage considerations will need to include an area larger than the planter size. This cone shape emission is very important to consider as well. The base of the cone is going to be wider than the top. This is why the expected height and width of the full grown plant should be taken into consideration. As plants get larger, only portions that fall within the light cone will grow properly. Since much of the light emitted from the LED array is invisible to the human eye- we have provided a chart to approximate your coverage area based on the mounting height above the plants. Click here for coverage area by mounting height. |
LED Grow Lighting Coverage
