LED Grow lights are taking the indoor gardening world by storm, and it isn’t a wonder why. With an increase in efficiency, optimized color spectrums, less heat, and longer life cycles it is a wonder why everyone hasn’t switched already. But just how much of a difference are they really in comparison?

Energy Efficiency: How Much Electricity Does it Really Save?

Conventional grow lights tend to be quite expensive to operate. Most people have a preconceived notion that it is just a light bulb, so how much energy could it actually use? If you are using a Metal Halide or a High Pressure Sodium lighting system, you grow area requires about 25W per square foot. Most indoor gardens will range in size from 25 to 50 square feet, so looking at the latter number, this would equate to approximately 1250 watts of power to maintain the garden. To put this size into perspective, this is a garden approximately 5 feet by 10 feet, or half of a medium bedroom. In the USA, the average electricity cost was around 12 cents per kilowatt hour. That means, running your indoor gardening lighting system would cost around $750 per year to have the light on an average of 14 hours per day. This obviously starts to add up quite significantly in a short period of time. LED grow lights on the other hand will save as much as 75% of the electricity cost, or $550 per year.