LEDs seem to be common here.

Blurple LEDs:

Pro:

  • Cheapest entry level LED option.
  • Doesn't get hot enough to burn your house down
  • Doesn't use a huge amount of power

Con:

  • Doesn't deliver full spectrum, I suggest if you go blurples, get one with some white LEDs, UV, and Far-red/IR built in.
  • Less efficient than professional quality LEDs per watt.

Metal-Halide:

Pro:

  • Cost effective
  • Good for vegetative growth
  • Can usually get conversion kits so you can swap with HPS.

Con:

  • Can get hot and burn your house down.
  • Doesn't generate the same green through far-red spectrum as HPS, so overall not as good for flowering.
  • Can end up with really short, stalky plants if used by itself.

High-pressure Sodium:

Pro:

  • Cost effective
  • Good all-around
  • Can usually get conversion kits so you can swap with MH.

Con:

  • Can get hot and burn your house down.
  • Doesn't generate the same strong blue end of the spectrum like blurples or MH, meaning your plants will end up being a little taller with less pigment.
  • On its own sometimes your plants will be more leggy and tall/stretched than if you had something with more blue light.

High quality LEDs:

Pro:

  • Probably the best of all of the above for light quality and growth
  • Doesn't get hot and burn your house down like MH/HPS.
  • Most power efficient

Con:

  • Most expensive, poor ROI until you've used them for a long time.
  • Even more expensive if you are not doing a DIY build option.
  • If DIY and you wire it wrong you can burn your house down.
  • If DIY and you touch a hot DC terminal you can kill yourself.

With all of the above options make sure you have dedicated electrical circuits with arc-fault protection and ground-fault protection in addition to the normal overcurrent protection present in a breaker.

Be Safe.

/r/microgrowery Thread