For decades metal halide lights were said to be one of the best lighting options around.
Metal halide lights vs led.
While this was true back in the 1970s when led technology was still in the early stages of development it is no longer the case.
I strongly suggest freshwater plant and reef keepers read this in depth and more importantly well researched and current article about aquarium lighting.
Until a few years ago there was a huge misconception that led lighting was not a good replacement for traditional metal halide lighting.
Led vs metal halide what are leds.
Not only are they more efficient than incandescent lights but they also burn much brighter.
In the picture to the left a 12 watt led grow light similar to the natural daylight led aquarium light showed superior growth to a 175 watt full spectrum metal halide.
Metal halide lights are very bright when new but lose their lumens very quickly.
Studies have shown that the blue wavelength in light increases the overall growth of plants.
It comes in a wide range of wattages from 250 to 1 000.
Led vs metal halide high bay understanding the advantages of led high bay over metal halide high bay in a detailed comparison.
Efficacy is a measurement of how well a light source produces light.
Industrial led lighting for factories warehouses and more.
In this case we ll be comparing leds and metal halides but all bulb types can be quantified with this measurement.
Metal halide lamps generate a very cool white light.
Led light is focused while metal halide light is not.
Correlated color temperature read more here.
Before we breakdown the contenders let s talk about the current reigning champion.
Leds are available in a wide range of color temperatures that generally sp an from 2200k 6000k ranging from warm yellow to light or cool blue.
Metal halide mh metal halide is a hid style grow light.
Led theoretically because of the nature of how they produce light led technology is superior to any hid technology because it can target as necessary any part of the photosynthetic response spectrum specifically without outputting under utilized light and wasting energy.
For those who have yet to discover the beauty of the led led bulbs are light emitting diodes where electricity flows through two electrodes an anode and a cathode.