LED vs HPS power consumption is important to think about when setting up your own grow room. Aside from yield, spacing, and upfront costs, you’ll also want to consider the long-term monetary effects of either type of lighting. The less power your grow space consumes, the more cost-effective your plants will become and knowing the pros and cons of LED and HPS lighting is essential.
The Difference in Power Consumption
Similar to household lighting, you’ll find LED is far more energy efficient than HPS lighting, with a difference of up to 400W. This is especially true if you opt for more modern rigs, as they are likely to have even higher savings. With more than 40% reduction in consumption, you’ll be able to experience more long-term savings with LED lighting.
Some other energy-saving advantages of switching to LED lighting include:
1. Reduced Peripheral Usage
The lights themselves will help you to experience a reduction of up to 75% in AC usage, but there will also be benefits experienced with your peripherals. If you are using other items such as exhaust fans and ventilation, you’ll notice they won’t be as necessary. This offers even more savings in terms of your operation’s consumption.
As an example, if you’re using HPS with 10 plants, you’re going to need a minimum of three fixtures, an AC unit, and an exhaust system. The three fixtures may total up to 3000 watts and the AC unit will need to be at least 10,000BTU. By switching to LED, you can render all those items obsolete.
2. Reduced Environment Controls
As LED lighting is far simpler to manage in terms of radiating heat and temperature, another advantage you’re likely to experience is a reduced need for temperature controls. Though it’s important to note you’ll likely still need to manage the climate of your growing space, especially with a lot of plants, you won’t need to use them as regularly as you would with an HPS setup.
With the help of LED, each light uses specialized semiconductor materials instead of gas, which makes it more efficient to generate light. This process creates far less heat meanwhile providing a higher wattage than you’d experience with an HPS fixture.
3. Lessened Summer Extraction Costs
For many growers, you’re going to notice the cost to extract bud during the warmer months will be substantially more expensive. If you continue to use HPS lights, the cost per yield will undoubtedly become too much to handle over time. As mentioned, since LED lights not only consume less power but also generate less heat, your summer yields will be far more cost effective.
LED vs HPS Power Consumption: An In-Depth Look
| Lighting Type | Features | Power Consumption |
| LED |
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| HPS |
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The values shown above will differ depending on the price of kWh of your area.
The Other Differences Between LED and HPS Lighting
Apart from power consumption, there are plenty of other differences between LED and HPS lighting for your grow room to consider. You’ll want to take all these features into account, as the more expensive bulbs may be preferable for your needs.
1. Yield
One of the most important parts of any grow operation is to make sure you’re able to yield enough product. Many believe that the skill of the grower has the most to do with yield, but your lighting is also important to consider. There is some research that suggests using LED lights produces a higher yield than with HPS lighting.
For each watt used with HPS lighting, you’re likely to yield up to half a gram. For example, with a 1000W bulb, you’ll cultivate up to 500g for each harvest.
On the other end of the spectrum, it is possible to harvest up to one gram per watt when using LED lights. According to Illumenedge, groups have been able to harvest just over one gram of weed per watt.
2. Spacing and Area
When you’re setting up your grow room, you’re going to need to take space under advisement. You’ll want to make sure you’re not taking up too much room meanwhile giving your plants more than enough space to flourish. Spacing is one of the most crucial aspects of any environment.
HPS lighting, as cost-effective as it is for startup costs, will also create a lot of humidity and unstable temperatures. As it operates at such a high level of heat, you’ll also need to invest in expensive temperature controls.
By opting for LED lighting, you’ll be able to save more space as you won’t have to worry as much about environment control systems, large AC units, or external fixtures.
You’ll also realize that LED lights help you to reduce the vertical space needed for growing. They can be mounted closer to the plants, without the worry of bleaching or burning. In addition, you won’t be increasing the fire hazard in your home as they operate at a much lower temperature than HPS lights.
3. Maintenance and Longevity
The final difference we’ll explore is in terms of the lifetime of your bulbs. The industry standard warranty for LED lights is up to 100,000 hours, meaning you shouldn’t have to change the bulb for that length of time. With an 18-hour grow cycle, that equates to approximately 5555 days.
HPS, on the other hand, will need to be changed every two to three cycles (six to nine months). This is because they’ll become less efficient over time and as such, with a standard HPS bulb, you may get a maximum of 3600 hours before it needs to be replaced.
Final Thoughts
Overall, you can easily tell the differences between LED vs HPS power consumption, with LED being the clear winner. You’ll be able to limit your energy consumption as well as other costs associated with setting up your own grow room. Although the startup costs are higher than with HPS, they have more long-term cost savings to consider.
