(Last Updated: April, 2023)
What Changed?
- Added Kind LED X Series Bar Light
- Removed discontinued products
- Updated pros/cons on King Plus 100W LED Grow Light
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Budget growing lights are all about growing healthy and strong plants for a great price. While you could spend hundreds of dollars on a growing system for your home or apartment, and still get some amazing plants out of it, you don’t necessarily need to. That’s what these budget grow lights are for: they’ll work great to grow your garden without breaking the bank.
7 Best Budget Grow Lights – Full Spectrum LED Lights
More About The KIND LED X Series Bar Light
To grow good plants, you need a good LED light. That’s why you’ll love this KIND LED bar light. We found this light bar to be one of the most versatile on the market, with a wide angle that hit all of our plants and a perfect blend of light to add to any existing seedlings or growing plants. Use this to complete your existing greenhouse, or to begin to set one up. With this bar on your side, you’ll be able to add some versatility to your growing.This bar is so versatile and easy to set up that you can literally install it anywhere. What you use it for is only limited by your own imagination since the blend of light ensures that you get the best emissions of light for our plants. It helps that the light is tuned to provide you with the best quality of light no matter where you place them.
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Pros:
- Completely sturdy and made to keep out dust
- They’re safe to use even amongst tons of plants
- When water hits them accidentally, they are completely fine
Cons:
- You will need to figure out the setup on your own
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More About The QUASAR Led Grow Lights
One of the best things about these QUASAR LED grow lights is that they’re full spectrum. This means that you’re able to use them for all stages of the growing process without worrying about switching out lights as your plants grow. After testing these for months, we found that they really did continue to help our plants grow as time passed.Now, know that this is a small grow light, but it’s still powerful. This full spectrum LED emits a lot of light, means that you spend a lot less time struggling with your lights. Beyond the spectrum of light though, the actual light is made to be tough. It’s constructed of aluminum and PC, with a lens that’s covered in waterproof material so that if you happen to splash it with water, the light will be perfectly fine.
Pros:
- Uses such a small amount of electricity, and produces no heat
- This is a super easy grow light to set up—just place it where you need it
- Fit it in smaller or larger systems with ease
Cons:
- They sit easier on the floor than they hang
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Phlizon Newest 600W LED Plant Grow Light | Ismile 1000W LED Grow Light |
HONORSEN 2000W LED Grow Light | COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 3500K |
More About The 24 Watt Advance Spectrum Dual-Band LED Grow Light Panel
Talk about a sleek looking grow light. This 24-watt advanced spectrum light is designed to provide your plants with the most amount of light, with a 90-degree lens to ensure that your plants get the most amount of coverage possible. With the blue spectrum on the lower end of the light spectrum, you’ll see plant growth during the early stages, and then you can use the red spectrum to help promote growth in the flower stage.We love that this grow light panel is lightweight too. We could easily lift it up and put it up wherever we needed. Thanks to the construction of the light, you don’t need to worry about the light getting too warm either.
Pros:
- The panel itself is sturdy and thick, making it durable
- You can adjust the back panels depending on your needs
- They’re relatively easy to install for supplemental lighting
Cons:
- The actual lifespan varies
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Phlizon Newest 600W LED Plant Grow Light | Ismile 1000W LED Grow Light |
HONORSEN 2000W LED Grow Light | COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 3500K |
More About The Giixer 1000W LED Grow Light
The Giixer LED are some of the best out there, with brighter and more efficient lights that hit your plants with the LED they need to grow their best. Your plants will love the grow light, and you’ll love that you can use these lights while they only consume 110 watts. Switch them to handle veggies, to handle young seedlings, or even to handle older plants and blooming. You have lots of light for all kinds of plants, even if you’re using these plant lights for over 20,000 hours.We love how durable they are too. If you happen to notice one LED shorting out, the other ones will still work. This means that while you’ll want to get a replacement in this case, you can still keep using the light until it runs out.
Pros:
- It’s actually made of some strong metal and class
- It can run constantly for months without getting hot or shorting out
- It is really bright, but it doesn’t get too warm
Cons:
- It is a little small, so you’ll have to get a few of them
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Phlizon Newest 600W LED Plant Grow Light | Ismile 1000W LED Grow Light |
HONORSEN 2000W LED Grow Light | COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 3500K |
More About The King Plus 1000w LED Grow Light Double Chips Full Spectrum
When you want to grow your plants, you might find that you have a mix of plants that you want to grow. You may have plants that are very young or plants that are a ready for blooming. That’s why this King Plus grow light is the best, since you can flip the Veg/Bloom switch to provide your plants the proper amount of light no matter what stage of growth they’re in. This means that you can customize your grow light to help it work for you.Take advantage of the full LED spectrum without worrying about a huge price to accompany you. You have energy-saving technology for a brighter light with less of a price. It helped that they have an advanced cooling system in them too, ensuring that we never had to worry about the heat.
Pros:
- Customer service is great if you have any problems
- They’re extremely quiet and durable
- The light is strong, but not strong enough to overpower a room
Cons:
- Some of the lights may short out after a while
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Phlizon Newest 600W LED Plant Grow Light | Ismile 1000W LED Grow Light |
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More About The 1000W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants
Use these full spectrum lights to grow your plants with some optical lens technology that will increase your light output by 30 percent compared to other options currently on the market. Switch your grow light using the two separate switches for either seeding growth or for blooming and adult plants. Either way, with the full spectrum of light, you’ll find yourself with a maximum amount of light and a huge amount of growth from the seedling stage to the final flower.With these full spectrum lights, we found it easy enough to set them up for indoor growing. Hang them with ease and you’ll be able to see your growing begin. Since the cord can also be used as a daisy chain, it’s easy for you to manage your growth with just these lights.
Pros:
- The unit itself is built well and is very strong
- There are two fans in this unit that keep it cool
- It includes various buttons to help you adjust your growing
Cons:
- The brightness does not extend as far as you might like
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Phlizon Newest 600W LED Plant Grow Light | Ismile 1000W LED Grow Light |
HONORSEN 2000W LED Grow Light | COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 3500K |
More About The Shengsite 75W Plant Grow Lights for Indoor House Plants
If you want to grow your plants inside, there are few brands that are better than Shengsite. This grow light includes red and blue LEDs that will help grow your plant at all stages, and that will help them grow stronger faster. Especially if you need a little extra light, these are the best lights. They condense the light so that your plants see the benefits and you see the growth quickly—without worrying about these lights emitting too much heat in the process.Save energy while you grow even larger plants in your home, your greenhouse, or wherever else you have your garden set up in your home. The best part is that they are easy to set up and not heavy at all, so you can place them anywhere that you have room.
Pros:
- Blooms your plants with amazing speed
- They’re compact enough that you can easily fit them anywhere
- They may be super bright, but they don’t burn too hot
Cons:
- You may need sunglasses to help with the intensity of the light
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Phlizon Newest 600W LED Plant Grow Light | Ismile 1000W LED Grow Light |
HONORSEN 2000W LED Grow Light | COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 3500K |
What is a Grow Light?
There are a ton of different types, but when it comes down to it, they all serve the same basic purpose. Grow lights add supplemental lighting your indoor growing. These aren’t like incandescent bulb and lamp combos. They’re designed to provide the types of light plants need to grow.
Types of Grow Lights
Grow lights aren’t a single type category. Just like with motors, grills, or even chairs, there are different types. They vary in wattage, but also output. Not every grow light produces the same type of light. The heat they produce, as well as their usable lifetime also differs. Here are the different types and what makes them different from one another:
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High intensity discharge HPS
High pressure sodium (or HPS) grow lights are one type of HID grow light. These are more traditional grow lights, although they do give off more heat than other types. They also put off more red and orange light, so they’re ideal for flowering and fruiting plants. Like other types of HID (high intensity discharge) lights, they also need a special ballast to work. With any type of HID light, you need to ensure you have enough space and ventilation to keep them cool.
High intensity discharge MH
Another type is MH, or metal halide. They still have a high output, making them a high intensity discharge light. Like hps, they also need a certain type of ballast to regulate their power. Metal halide grow lights produce more blue light. These are good for leafy greens and other similar plants, but they don’t produce the red light that flowering and fruiting plants need. Like HPS, they also produce more heat than other types.
Fluorscent
Fluorescent ones are also popular, although they’re not the kind you find in a typical office building. Sometimes CFL (compact fluorescent lights) bulbs are used for small grows. However, T5 fluorescent is better for growing multiple plants. The tubes are thinner than most fluorescent ones, but they produce more of the light that plants need. That said, fluorescent also produces mostly blue light, much like metal halide ones. In turn, that means they’re better for leafy greens like basil or lettuce, or young plants and sprouts. An advantage is that they’re very energy efficient and last for a long time.
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Among all the types, L.E.D grow lights are some of the newest. While they aren’t yet the most used, they’re certainly on their way to being there. Why? Because they can do the jobs of several different kinds of grow lights combined. Not only that, they’re more efficient, and produce more types of light. In fact, most led grow lights can produce red, blue, or even full spectrum rays. Many can even switch between the different types of light they give off. They provide plenty of light intensity, and they don’t produce much, if any, detectable heat. This makes them ideal for a range of different plants and spaces. In the past, LED grow lights were more expensive, although with an increase in manufacturing, that’s quickly changing.
Features to Consider
Now that you know the basic facts about different types, you still need to know about what to look at.
Type of light
In an ideal world, you could choose any type of light and get the color of light you want. However, you do have to make choices. If you choose HID, you’ll have to switch between MH and HPS as your plants mature (unless you’re growing only leafy greens or sprouting plants). For some growers, this can ultimately decrease the cost effectiveness of HIDs. Fluorescent produce mostly blue light, which means you won’t be able to give mature plants the red light they need. LED can produce any combination of red, blue, and full spectrum, and provide light for any stage of growth.
Efficiency
If you want to look at efficiency, look at wattage first. Wattage tells you how much energy the light needs to run. It doesn’t actually tell you much about what kind of light comes out, or the intensity thereof. However, when you run your lights consistently, that kind of energy usage can really add up over time. Consider your energy bills and get a more efficient grow light,
Heat
As we mentioned, high intensity discharge lights give off the most heat of any type of grow light. However, they’re still the best option if you have the space and ventilation to take care of it. If you have a small grow room, or grow tent, it may be best to choose cooler lights. Fluorescent lights also produce very little heat, although the light may not suit all plants. LED also produces hardly any heat. The other benefit to that is they also come in a variety of sizes, so you can use them basically anywhere regardless of your setup.
Conclusion
At first, the world of led light growing can seem really confusing. However, once you know what you’re looking for, and how they work, it gets a lot easier. Regardless of what you choose, make sure you check the specs first. Always make sure you have enough room to safely hang and operate them. When you set up, remember to check spacing recommendations from the manufacturer. You don’t have to spend a fortunate; a cheap led grow light can do the job well.