Wattage and Lumens of Cannabis Grow Lights

Generally speaking, the higher the wattage of the bulb, the more light it produces. The more light that is produced, the better your plants will grow. An excellent way to measure the amount of light you are getting per square foot is through the use of lumens. Wattage and lumens tend to go hand in hand, but can vary system to system. Even though lumens tend to correlate with wattage, it is the design of the light that can have drastic impacts on the actual amount of lumens emitted.

There are three factors to consider when deciding how many lumens you need. These are:

• The size of the grow area
• How many plants you have
• How large your budget is

It basically comes down to this, the more lumens cast over your grow area, the stronger your cannabis plants are going to grow. Each plant will require an absolute minimum of 2,500 lumens. A standard 400W HID lamp will usually emit 45,000 lumens. This should be enough to comfortably grow up to 12 cannabis plants in a 1m2 area – with enough lumens to cause strong growth.

You will have to take the strain you are growing into account here as well, one large sativa may take up the entire area you would use to grow many smaller indicas. Meaning if you plant to grow a lot of sativas you will need a bigger area and more lights to cover them.

Whilst have 45,000 lumens within a 1m2 grow area will get you good results, having a light with a higher wattage that produces more lumens within the same area will help you achieve even better results. It all comes down to how much you want to grow, what lighting systems you can afford and what you are prepared to spend on electricity bills. The stronger the light, the more it's going to cost you.

400W and 600W light bulbs are the favorite of indoor cannabis growers. Some growers even use light bulbs with 1000W. This is logical, when you consider 'more light = bigger yield'. But watch out; the more Watts you use in your grow room, the hotter it gets. Especially with 600W and 1000W light bulbs the temperature can become way too high for your cannabis plants in your grow room. So be prepared to do some temperature control when using strong light bulbs.