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THE DESIGN and build of an economical,
functional, and successful indoor garden
is a careful balancing act of planning.”
Initial Cost and Energy Demands
Perhaps the most efficient way to begin planning a
growroom lighting system is to consider initial cost
versus energy demands. Weighing one’s initial over-
head against the light’s intended usage, including
both regularity and scale, will give a grower a concrete
starting point in choosing the correct system.
A quick financial overview of the three primary light-
ing systems on the market today—single-ended (SE)
high pressure sodium (HPS), double-ended (DE) HPS,
and light emitting diode (LED)—provides a great
roadmap for making informed consumer decisions.
Depending on the shop, a traditional single-ended,
air-cooled 1,000-watt (W) grow light retails for approx-
imately $200. Secondly, a 1,000W DE HPS light starts
at around $400. Finally, a 550W LED lighting rig costs
about $800 (due to spectral efficiency, a 550W LED light
emits a similar amount of usable light as a 1,000W
HPS lamp). As one can see, LED lighting presents a far
greater initial cost than the first two set-ups.
The regularity and scale of usage of the growroom
lighting directly results in the system’s energy
demands, which then translates into a power bill.
With this notion in mind, growers can make sound
consumer decisions based on how much they will use
their lighting system. To illustrate, if an individual
only plans on producing one or two crops a year in a
1,000W grow operation, it probably makes the most
economic sense to opt for either an SE or DE HPS
system, as it will take an exorbitant amount of time to
recuperate the initial cost of an LED set-up on such a
small scale. Conversely, if a grower intends to produce
five or six harvests a year, or operate on a commercial
scale, LEDs could be a more practical purchase as the
regularity and scale of energy usage at this level will
quickly recoup the higher initial cost.
Growroom Infrastructure
Other important factors to consider when
designing a lighting system are the spat