the bigger problem is this: most of these LED panels coming from China are not safety tested and certified and their output claims are almost always exaggerated. They may be inexpensive but ultimately they will not do the job in the long run. Ask yourself this: how long and how often do you plan to grow your own cannabis? Wouldn't you rather spend more money on a decent light knowing it will last? Also, these lights run a minimum of 12 hours everyday. This is the biggest reason to make sure they are safety tested and certified to avoid premature fail rates or worse yet, electrical
fires.
Sadly Amazon has a policy that states that anything sold on the Amazon Marketplace that plugs in to an electrical outlet, must meet Federal and/or State (or province in Canada) electrical safety standards (UL, CSA or ETL) but they do not check/verify products at all so these third party sellers are selling electrical devices that haven't passed
any safety certification or thorough testing. These sellers will claim that they do but they are using the "CE" certification (think "self certified") which is not recognized in North America (or UK, Europe). Additionally this certification is regularly faked
https://support.ce-check.eu/hc/en-u...-Real-CE-Mark-From-A-Fake-Chinese-Export-Mark
I tried the "cheap" route once and my pitiful yields were a direct result of a cheap light(s). Remember, nothing compares to the Sun, so indoor growers need to try to get as much out of their lights as possible.
Light is the biggest factor in the grow. Everything else is secondary, IMHO. You can have the best soil or hydroponic set up in the world, the best nutes on the market and the purest water but it all means spit unless you have enough
full spectrum light.
If LED is what you are looking for, they do run cooler than traditional panels and the only manufacturer that I know of that has
verifiable safety certification is ViparSpectra and only on certain models (mine is a 900W UL certified).
Good luck