Off-the-shelf LED lights come in colors (red and blue) that are not quite the right wavelength. In looking at their spectrum, they do cover more than a single sliver of frequency but their main energy output is far enough off the optimum required by the plants that you will need about ten times the power to get enough light in the part of the spectrum the plant requires. This comes out to be about 100 watts of LED electrical power for each square meter of grow bed space.

Color corrected LEDs, on the other hand, are claimed to require only about 10 watts per square meter of grow bed space. Color corrected LEDs are more expensive to purchase.

We are currently building a grow room that is well insulated in order to reduce its energy consumption. As part of this experiment, we will be testing color corrected LED grow lights.

This project is, in part, us trying to determine if it is economically viable to move on to a commercial operation that can be placed in a large number of varying environments.

I will keep you posted as we progress. We currently have the room completed and the components for the system in place and ready to be connected. We have yet, however, to purchase the rather expensive color corrected LED grow lights.

So, once we do all of this, we will have a better idea if the claims made are supported by the testing we will do.

As an aside, we have been told that some experiments with using just red and blue LED grow lights produce a modified result from that of a full spectrum light. As an example, flowers grow well but have no smell. Vegetables come out tasting a little off.

I cannot validate these claims but the lights we will be using, in addition to being color corrected, will have the addition of green and yellow LEDs.

Oliver