Need UV grow light​ for growing​ or not? Negative vs Positive Stance

Many growers today are still uncertain whether UV is truly effective. However, we also see many large-scale cultivation facilities integrating UV into their lighting spectrum.

The current mainstream scientific view supports the supplemental use of UV, but whether to include UV in your setup still depends on many different factors. We've explained a lot of this in a previous article, which you can check out through the link to our UV article.

That article focuses more on the decision-making process for choosing UV, so we won’t repeat all of it here. Instead, let’s talk more about the practical characteristics of using UV.

Many articles and research papers have highlighted the benefits of UV, and as mentioned earlier, most major grow light manufacturers—such as AC Infinity and California Lightworks—now include UV options in their product lines.

However, UV also comes with quite a few drawbacks when used in real-world settings:

Because of their short wavelength, UV rays are easily absorbed or blocked by materials. That creates a design dilemma:

• If you use protective materials, the UV effect becomes weak.

• If you don't use protection, the UV chips are vulnerable to environmental damage, and problems may go      unnoticed.

• UV chips also tend to fail early if they're powered on along with other LEDs for long periods.

Lighting designers face these same problems, and several solutions are now used across different brands, there is a brief description of each brand in our other article. If you are interested, you can click here

So far, no product on the market fully solves the UV problem — but our design team has developed a more balanced approach.

The biggest challenge with UV right now is still its limited lifespan. The light decay is hard to detect, damage is difficult to notice, and the overall effect is tough to compare.

Light Decay:

Standard LED chips emit blue light, which then excites the phosphor coating on the outside, converting part of the blue light into other colors. So, for regular LEDs, the light decay mainly depends on the inner blue-light-emitting material.

But UV LEDs are different. Their light decay is influenced by both the inner light-emitting unit and the outer materials. Instead of emitting blue light, the UV LED's inner unit directly emits ultraviolet (purple) light, and the materials used are much more fragile, with lower luminous efficiency.

Because of this lower efficiency, more energy turns into heat, creating a vicious cycle that accelerates degradation.

On top of that, UV itself accelerates material aging—just like how things left in the sun too long turn yellow or brittle. This causes the outer light-transmitting materials around the chip to gradually lose transparency, reducing UV output even more. UV degradation happens rapidly during use, and it's not always obvious to the eye.

Damage:

UV LED damage is hard to detect because it's not visible light. From our perspective, the most common cause of UV damage is static electricity. As mentioned earlier, UV chips are structurally different from standard LEDs—they're made with more fragile materials.

During installation or handling, if you're carrying static and accidentally touch the UV LED, it's possible to break down the internal material, causing permanent physical failure.

Before shipping, we carefully test each UV chip, especially to avoid damage during internal handling or material transfers. However, even with multiple checks, some chips may still get damaged during transit.

Grow Performance:

There's research showing that UV light can positively influence specific compounds in cannabis. However, these effects are typically observed using professional lab instruments. For regular growers, the impact is often hard to notice, and it's difficult to tell whether any changes are truly caused by UV or something else.

Our UV Design Solution

In our custom models, we integrate UV into the full-spectrum design, but with some key differences:

• UV LEDs are mounted on a separate PCB, located at the center of the grow light.

• The UV module has a dedicated connector on the side, protected by a cap.

• The PCB is elevated, preventing accidental contact during stacking or installation.

• UV can be controlled independently via a switch or smartphone Bluetooth — so it doesn't run continuously.

• If the UV module fails, it can be replaced by hand without affecting the rest of the light.

• The replacement module includes all the same protections and control features.

• UV's role still needs more long-term market validation. If you don't need UV for now, our design still works for you — the reserved connector allows you to add UV anytime later, without changing your current grow setup.

  
  

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UV has many benefits and receives a lot of positive attention, but it's also important to emphasis disadvantages. That way, growers can view UV with a more rational and informed perspective—which is ultimately beneficial for the future of the UV market. 

Where light grows, so does knowledge. Hope everyone is inspired by sharing!