LED Growing Light Acronyms

HID Lights – High Intensity Discharge Lighting. This is really the umbrella term for both HPS and MH grow lights.

HPS – High-pressure sodium. This is a popular traditional grow light. This type of growing light along with MH light is probably the most popular light used. LED lights are slowly chipping away at them.  This type of grow lights produces a fairly strong red spectrum. For those of you who aren’t growing nerds, this means that this type of light is good for blooming plants. Some people say it is good for cloning plants as well.

MH Light –Metal Halide light. You don’t really need to know what a metal halide is, but it is good to know a couple of things about this type of light. First, it is one of the more popular used lights out there under the HID category. The second thing you should know is that it provides a fairly intense blue spectrum. At this point, you are probably asking what does a blue spectrum do? Well you should just know that in general blue spectrums cause faster plant growth.

LED grow lights – Light-emitting diode grow lights. These lights are becoming more and more popular as the technology advances. Many hope that these grow lights will save them money on lighting and energy use. Many proponents of these lights also believe that they don’t leave as much of an environmental footprint as traditional HID lights do. The light components themselves are believed to be more environmentally friendly. In addition, the fact that less energy is needed to operate this type of light means that these lights could become extremely popular in the next few years due to the “green” movement.

Bulb Jacket – This is just what it sounds like. A jacket or outer envelope around the bulb.

Ballast – This is basically the device that provides power for the lights. Technically it controls the amount of electricity received by

This is what a ballast looks like.

the HID lights. The good news for those in favor of LED grow lights is that they don’t need a ballast (traditional growing lights do).

PAR Light – Basically the light that is visible to the human eye. PAR stands for photosynthetically active radiation. This type of light is believed to be best for photosynthesis purposes.

Lumens – This is simply a measurement of how much light is being generated.

See something else you would like to see in this growing light glossary? Leave a comment below and we’ll try and bring you a clear and concise definition. For those just entering into the world of growing lights, it can be overwhelming.