What is the difference between a grow light and a regular light?

Indoor gardening has never been easier. Grow lights for indoor plants allow you to cultivate a wide variety of plants at any climate during any time of year. These growing lights are specially designed to substitute natural sunlight, stimulating photosynthesis and providing the right color spectrum where the plant can grow and flourish. With the right fixture or bulb, you can have delicious tomatoes in the dead of winter or award-winning violets year-round.

We all know plants need light to grow and be healthy. Indoor plants often suffer from too little sun and can benefit from artificial light. Most lighting options today feature LEDs due to their long life and low energy use. But should you use LED lights to grow plants? The traditional grow lights were fluorescent or incandescent. Let’s see what the difference between LED lights and grow lights stacks up to and which is better. Keep reading for LED grow light info that will help you make an informed decision before you purchase plant lights.

What are LED Grow Lights For?

LED grow lights are a relatively new horticultural introduction, although NASA has been studying them for decades. Are LED lights better than traditional grow lights? That depends upon the crop on which they are used, as well as economic and energy expenditure factors. Just like fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, LED bulbs produce light that is needed by plants. Most plants need light waves of red and blue. The chemicals that control plant growth respond to both colors differently. Phytochromes drive leafy growth and are responsive to red light, while cryptochromes, which control plant light response, are sensitive to blue lights. You can get good growth with just one or the other of the color waves, but utilizing both will result in bigger yields and healthier plants with quicker growth. LED lights can be customized to emit long or short light waves as well as certain levels of color to improve plant performance.

Are LED Lights Better?

There is not just one difference between LED lights and grow lights. While LED lights require more of a cash layout, they will last more than twice as long as other lights. Additionally, they require less energy, which saves money over time.

Can any LED light be used as a grow light?

As we said before, if your plant needs some illumination in a jiffy, an LED light will provide it. For the long-term health of your plant, it’s better to stick to grow lights specifically.

Even still, you need to shop for your grow lights carefully. Try to get full-spectrum LEDs with a wealth of colors or else you’ll have to change your lights as your plant grows. That’s a hindrance, and an annoying one at that.

What is the difference between a grow light and a regular light?

Now that we’ve gone into detailed explanations of both LED lights and LED grow lights, what’s the differences between them?

• Illumination purposes: LED lights are solely used for providing illumination in a residential or commercial sphere. LED grow lights encourage plant growth.


• Light variety: As we mentioned, you can select from a variety of grow lights that suit your budget and needs. These include HIDs, fluorescents, incandescents, and, of course, LEDs.


• Colors available: Here’s what we covered in the intro. Normal LEDs do have a color spectrum, but it may not be as comprehensive as that of grow lights. For instance, LED grow lights need both blue and red light spectrums. The blue allows your plant to experience vegetative growth while the red can promote flowering.

While regular LEDs are great to have at home since they last practically forever and can save you money, don’t get it confused. LED lights are not the same as LED grow lights. If you’re providing a light source for your plant, a grow light will ensure they reach their full potential. That’s not to say you can’t use an LED or another non-grow light source, but grow lights work better.

Grow Light Basics

All green plants require light to perform photosythesis, during which special cells convert the energy contained in the light into sugars. In the process, plants give off oxygen.

Plants vary widely in how much light they need to thrive — from low-light houseplants, such as dracaenas, to fruiting edibles, such as tomatoes, that need much brighter light.

Seedlings require lots of bright light, and when they don't receive enough they get weak and leggy. In most cases, even the sunniest windowsill won't provide the intensity or duration of light they need, especially in winter.

Plants vary widely in how much light they need to thrive.
Light fixture with full-spectrum LED lights
Specially designed best LED grow light stands make it easy to provide the light plants require.
Lighting Terms

• Intensity describes the amount of light that reaches a surface at given distance from the light source. A super-bright bulb that's 12" from a surface might, for example, provide the same light intensity as a dimmer bulb that's 2" from the surface.


• Duration describes the number of hours of light a plant receives in a 24-hour period. We can control it by turning lights on and off or, more easily, with a programmable timer.


• Color describes the visual appearence of light. Most grow lights provide full-spectrum light. Most of the light plants use is from the blue ("cool") and red ("warm") ends of the spectrum; they use little yellow and green light. Blue light stimulates vegetative growth (foliage and roots) while red light stimulates plants to produce flowers and fruit.

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Violet-blue light in the 400 – 520 nanometer range encourages chlorophyll absorption, photosynthesis, and growth.

Red light in the 610 – 720 spectrum range promotes flowering and budding.

Grow lights should provide the proper spectrum of light for photosynthesis, which key to plant growth. Before purchasing a light, be sure to check out the provided color spectrum. Lights that can provide a full spectrum are the ideal choice for your growing space.

This is where LED lights come in handy. Most LED growing lights offer both types of color spectrum lighting, so you can get all the benefits.

How do you get sufficient light for houseplants and indoor garden areas? Here are 3 tips on how to best set up your space.

• Consider your indoor garden plot. Whether it’s a single shelf, a basement area, or an entire room, look at how much space you have. Pot plants and beddings accordingly.


• Depending on the type of plant, group the pots or trays 4 to 8 inches apart to allow for growth and easy access for pruning and care.


• You’ll also want to make sure you purchase lights that will illuminate your entire plantings area. You may need more than one bulb or light source to fully cover your growing area. Depending on the size, you may only need to use only one light for houseplants, or you may need more.

Hanging or placing lights over the plant beds or pots is the best arrangement, as it mimics natural sunlight from overhead and exposes all sides and leaves of a plant to the artificial light.

As a rough guide, incandescent grow light bulbs should be at least 24 inches over your plants. Fluorescent and LED lights have a lower heat signature, so they can be placed 12 and 6 inches over plants respectively.

Keep adjusting the placement of the grow light as your plants develop and mature to maintain the proper distance. Consult your particular model and type of design for exact specifics and directions.

And remember that the lighting level required for growth indoors depends upon the characteristics of the particular plant being grown. Depending on what you want to grow, you may need different lights set a different heights for specific plant areas.

Different types of plants need different amounts of light. As a general rule of thumb, most vegetables and flowering plants need 12 to 16 hours of light per day, with flowering plants at the top end of that range. Plan on giving most plants at least 8 hours of darkness per day.

Darkness is actually very important for the plant growth cycle. During the day, sunlight helps plants produce energy through photosynthesis. At night, however, plants break this energy down for growth and flowering in a process called “respiration”.

Check your seed packaging or plant tags, or ask at the nursery for specific suggestions. And make sure you turn your grow lights off every once in a while. No one likes to work 24 hours a day – even plants!