Home » Hydroponics » 10 Energy Efficient Indoor Grow Lights For Plants 

HydroponicsLED Lights

10 Energy Efficient Indoor Grow Lights For Plants 

Robert Wortrich

Climatebiz Editor

August 31, 2023

You’re probably at your wit’s end right now – hours deep into researching the best indoor grow lights out there.

You may not even be that much closer to buying any lights -maybe you’ve been put off entirely.

We get it, the process isn’t easy. Most of what you’ve seen up to this point has probably felt “samey”. Never mind the reviews. How many times have you felt as though you’ve landed on the perfect product only to be put off by the reviews?

Basically, we understand how tough it’s been for you up to this point. But that’s all about to change.

In this article, we’ll put your hours of frustrating research to an end by providing you with 10 quality and energy-efficient grow lights.

How To Choose The Right Indoor Grow Lights For Your Plants

How Much Room Do You Have?

• Do you have more horizontal or vertical space to work with?

• Are there shelving units available to you? If not, do you have room for one?

• Do you require a lightweight, portable indoor light that you can manoeuver around your grow space?

These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself here, as the amount of grow space you have available to you will determine the size of your lighting setup.

What Type Of Light Do You Need?

Here you’ll need to think about two factors:

• The design of the light
• The spectrum of light it provides

Design

There’s a variety of indoor grow light designs out there – panels, clamps, tripods, hanging fixtures, etc. The type of plants you have, your immediate space, and the distance you have to work with will determine which light is best for you.

Light Spectrum

Is the light you’re looking to purchase full spectrum, or does it only have red & blue diodes?

Different plants and stages of plant growth have different requirements.

For a more comprehensive look into this matter, check out the following video by Epic Gardening:

What Wattage is Suitable For Your Grow Space?

While wattage isn’t as important as photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), which measures the specific light emission a lamp gives off, it’s still important.

The latter can be tough for people to figure out, so wattage is a simple tool that helps you determine the appropriate amount of lighting for your plants.

The rule of thumb – you need 32 watts per square foot of plants.

10 Energy Efficient Indoor Grow Lights We Recommend

View Price

Product Overview:

If you’re at all familiar with grow forums and lights, chances are you’ve come across the name, ‘Horticulture Lighting Group‘ (HLG). Or maybe you’ve just heard about their ‘quantum boards‘.

Either way, these guys are well known throughout the growing community. They were the first ones to introduce these lighting boards to the market – manufactured by Samsung.

This particular growing light is designed for vegging, clones, or supplementary light.

It uses their custom-designed high-efficiency white light Quantum Boards with a total of 120 pcs Samsung LM301B LEDs.

The fixture produces 10,000 Lumens with just 65 Watts of power.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Energy efficient — at 2.55 μmol/joule, you get far more output for electricity used

• Dimmable – allows you to save money on electricity when you don’t need full power

• Daisy chainable

• Large even coverage enhances light distribution

• 3-year warranty

View Price

Product Overview

First up on our list we have some full-spectrum, LED indoor grow lights by Bifrost.

The high-efficiency, energy-saving light beads come with 3 light modes(Red Light, Blue Light & Mixed Light) and 9 dimmable levels(ranging from 20% to 100%), which effectively supplement the lack of natural sunlight and promote the growth of plants at all stage

The beads are attached to flexible arms that allow you to position the light at any angle while controlling your light distance. One arm covers an area of 28 x 10 inches.

These indoor grow lights also feature an auto circular memory timing function. You can set it to 3/9/12 hours and it’ll automatically turn off every day based on your settings. This way, your little guys will continue to grow, even while you’re away/on vacation.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Auto circular memory timing function

• Long lifespan of 50,000+ hours without flickering

• Clip design with flexible arms

• 3 light modes

View Price

Product Overview:

MARS HYDRO has produced a set of indoor grow lights that take after their quantum board-style cousins. This is due to the fact that they also use many small, all-white diodes on a large fixture, creating even light distribution.

This light does however provide additional red light along with some UV and IR diodes.

MARS is certainly cheaper than HLG, but that’s only because the quality isn’t quite on par with them.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Energy-efficient – you can save about 50% on your electricity bill over HID lighting

• Modeled after quantum boards – this device uses Epistar diodes instead of Samsung (not quite as good, but certainly cheaper)

• 50,000-hour lifespan

• 3-year warranty and 30-day money-back guarantee

View Price

Product Overview

These LED grow lights by YUNNOVA come with an upgraded design that incorporates 5 light-heads attached to a 360-degree flexible gooseneck.

Each head is composed of 30 LED lamp beads (totaling 150) and is capable of providing light to 5-8 small indoor plants.

The gooseneck frame along with the stable, yet extendable tripod design (extendable from 15 – 65 inches) makes this indoor grow light perfect for those of you requiring an adaptable lighting setup.

The adjustable height also allows you to cover a much wider area, for say, an indoor Deep Water Culture or NFT hydroponic system.

Lastly, a lifetime warranty and free replacement guarantee with FCC, UL, CE, and ROHS certified support means that you can purchase these lights with confidence.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• 5-headed light structure

• Height adjustable tripod

• 360-degree flexible gooseneck

• Lifetime warranty and free replacement guarantee

View Price

Product Overview

This entry into the BESTVA series of grow lights comes with everything you’ll need to start growing immediately – light, hanging kits, power cord, and grow glasses.

The light itself has a solid spectrum that is predominantly made up of red diodes, followed by a lot of blue, and some white LEDs. This makes it effective for plants during the veg and bloom stages.

If cooling is important to you, you’ll be pleased to know that BESTVAs grow lights come with a fantastic cooling system that incorporates both cooling fans and heat sinks that mitigate the heat from its powerful chip.

You can rest easy when purchasing this grow light as it comes with a 3-year warranty and a 90-day return guarantee. They have a lot of great reviews on Amazon, too.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Rated for 100,000 hours — 4-5 years with no bulb changes

• Highly efficient — about 50% less power consumption than the equivalent HID lights

• 3-year warranty and 90-day money-back guarantee

• Includes everything you need to start growing

View Price

Product Overview

FRENAN’s full spectrum indoor grow lights are a fantastic option for those of you looking to invest in energy-efficient lights.

Its 4 heads, 10 brightness levels, and 3 spectral modes (warm light, red light & mixed light) give both you and your plants the kind of flexibility that every grow setup deserves.

What’s more, the lights come with a stable, durable tripod stand that can be adjusted from 15 to 62 inches – suitable for most house plants and growing applications.

Finally, the superior heat dissipation from these lights, resulting from adjustable gooseneck design, increases light durability and allows for a 50,000-hour long lifespan.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• 50,000-hour long lifespan

• 3 spectral modes

• 360-degree flexible gooseneck

• Height adjustable tripod

View Price

Product Overview

The Barrina indoor grow light is capable of providing a 3.5 x 3.5 ft bloom stage or 4 x 4 ft veg stage plant setup with full-spectrum sunlight.

The lighting output is comprised of 720 LEDs (at only 200W) that are ideal for all stages of growth: warm white light 3000k, blue light 5000k, red light 660nm, and IR 760nm.

Moreover, the 190° adjustable light panel offers increased luminous coverage and higher PPFD. You can essentially adjust the angle according to different growing stages, which will help promote plant germination and flowering.

Last but not least, these grow lights with 2.5 umol/J PPE, can save you up to 50% more energy than the HPS or other SMD LEDs.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• 50,000-hour long lifespan.

• 3 spectral modes.

• 360-degree flexible gooseneck.

• Height adjustable tripod.

• Daisy chain — connect several lights together and run them from a single outlet.

View Price

Product Overview:

Roleadro’s 75W, grow lights provide your plants with full-spectrum light while keeping things cool with their enhanced heat dissipation design.

They’ve adopted an aluminum cooling plate along with small heat sinks for each chip to achieve an improved level of heat dissipation throughout your grow.

Setup wise, the grow lights are nice and lightweight and they come with upgraded hanging brackets – both of which will allow you to put together your lighting within a minute.

On the warranty side of things, you’ll be pleased to know that Roleadro backs their product so much that it comes with a 30-month warranty.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Full Spectrum

• Aluminum cooling plate with heat sinks for each chip

• 30-month warranty

View Price

Product Overview:

Philizon’s 1000W Cob Series light combines white COBS with supplementary diodes to boost the spectrum in the wavelengths that your plants need the most to grow optimally (red and blue) while adding some IR and UV light.

You’ll find that these lights are incredibly bright, with this particular unit being able to cover a 2 x 3 area with ease!

Additionally, these lights come with the following:

• Hanging kit
• Power cable
• Thermometer and humidity monitor
• Grow glasses
• Adjustable ratchet hanger

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Very high output with deep canopy penetration — powerful COB chips penetrate much deeper than regular diodes

• Daisy chainable

• 50,000+ hour lifespan

• 2-year warranty and 30-day money back guarantee

View Price

Product Overview:

EXLENVCE have outdone themselves with these veg & bloom, double channel full spectrum grow lights

The maximum light coverage of these lights is 4.5 ft x 4.5 ft. You can however daisy chain multiple lights together to increase your coverage while keeping maintaining your grow space order and power cable management.

Finally, the lights come with a 4-year warranty, friendly customer service, and a 90-day, unconditional money-back guarantee.

Key Specs:

Notable Features:

• Full Spectrum

• Daisy Chainable

• 4 year warranty and 90-day unconditional money-back guarantee

How Much Money Can Energy Efficient Indoor Grow Lights Save You?

Let’s compare an LED light to an HID light.

For this example, we’ll use the Spider Farmer SF4000 LED and its equivalent, an 800 watt HID light.

LED Grow Light Running Cost

The SF4000 consumes 404 watts. Let’s convert that to kw/h: 404W/1000 = 0.404 kw/h.

Now let’s calculate kWh over a 12-hour period: 0.404 kw/h x 12 hours = 4.848 kilowatt-hours.

Now we need the average electricity price. In the U.S. it’s 14.21 cents per kilowatt-hour, which equals $0.1412 per kWh.

If we were to run a 404 watt LED, it’d be the following: 4.848 kWh x $0.1412/kWh = $0.684 per day.

Now we need to estimate the monthly cost: $0.684 x 30 days = $20.52 per month.

Now let’s compare it to the HID light.

HID Grow Light Running Cost

800 watts = .800 kw/h

.800 kw/h for 12 hours per day = 9.6 kWh

We’ll run through the same calculation again with 800 watts, which is .800 kw/h.

.800 kw/h for 12 hours per day gives us 9.6 kWh.

Using the same cost of electricity, we get a daily expense of 9.6 kWh x $0.1412/kWh = $1.35 per day.

Now we need to estimate the monthly cost: $1.35 x 30 days = $40.50 per month.

The Difference In Cost

To work out the difference, we do the following: HID monthly cost – LED monthly cost = $40.50 – $20.52:

Using the example of 1 LED bulb vs. 1 HID bulb: An energy-efficient indoor grow light can save you $19.98 per bulb.

Final Thoughts

We’re certain that they’re a bunch of other fantastic grow lights out there. If you’ve come across any, share your experience with us in the comment section below.