How to Cut your Electricity bill with the right lighting

One of the things that hydroponics growers are often most obsessed with is their electricity bills.

Traditional systems often use a significant amount of power. That makes energy use one of the main pillars of capital outlay and recurrent cost for hydroponics projects.

However, with today's technology, lots of growers are getting better grow lightingkits that are making their systems cheaper and much more energy-efficient.

So how do you cut your electric bill down with modern sophisticated grow lighting? Here are some common strategies.

Incorporate Natural Light

Getting flexible grow lighting for a larger grow space, and letting natural light in through glass or other transparent surfaces, is one way to cut down on energy costs. There is nothing cheaper than free, and the power of the sun can be your best friend when you're designing energy-efficient hydro operations.

Rely on Renewable Energy Sources

There's also the option to use renewable energy sources like solar or hydropower in order to take advantage of cheaper and more energy-efficient systems. Today's utility providers are introducing these choices to customers, and do-it-yourself kits for solar are getting cheaper and easier to implement.

High-design Energy-efficient Grow Lights

Aside from using natural renewable energy sources, you can also get new high-tech efficient hydroponic grow lights that feature better technology for making your hydroponics space less of an energy hog.

One of the biggest innovations in energy-efficient lighting is the light emitting diode or LED light. LED lights are changing many parts of the lighting industry, from outdoor decorations and large commercial lights to the regular lightbulbs that homeowners use in their light fixtures. But LEDs have made major inroads in hydroponic grow lighting as well.

LED lights are long-lasting and draw very little energy. One of the biggest reasons for their energy efficiency is that they do not expel energy as heat. The traditional “Thomas Edison” style lightbulb emits a lot of heat. In fact, if you touch it at all, you'll feel it on your fingers -- you might even get burned.

By contrast, LED lights are extremely low-heat. They're much lower fire risk, and they also draw a lot less energy. Experienced growers also point out that you can get even more energy production in the air handling system -- since LEDs don't generate heat, there's less need for air conditioning in a closed grow space.

All of this boils down to a major benefit for hydroponic growers who use energy-efficient lighting solutions. They're not forced to use traditional high heat lighting anymore. LED lights can replace some of the traditional metal halide and sodium bulbs that had the tendency to draw a lot of power and even burned some plants. Look at all of the available lighting for today's hydroponic gardens.