“1000W” has been the industry standard for "Adequate Cultivation Lighting Power" for a while now, in the era where HPS grow lights and HID grow lights thrived. Some experienced weed growers have been giving their allegiance to this informal standard even though the era of retrofitting to LED grow lights has arrived.

While they seem to be out of touch with the times, there's one thing they're absolutely right about: The grow results are almost proportional to the grow Light Intensity in cannabis cultivation before the peak is reached.

LED grow lights are much more efficient than HPS or HID grow lights, so they convert more electrical energy into lighting rather than thermal waste. That's why an 800W LED grow light is able to replace a 1000W HPS light in terms of PPFD (light intensity).

For cultivation that requires targeted lighting sources, LED is the absolute right choice. However, in the past, making large-wattage LED grow lights has led to a host of issues such as heat and safety. The quest for light intensity is an enduring goal for all growers and manufacturers seeking limits and benefits. Mars Hydro is no exception.

At the end of 2022, Mars Hydro's 1000W LED grow light is released.

FC-E1000W: Basic Specifications

The Mars Hydro FC-E1000W comes equipped with 10 light bars, and is installed with 4,910 pcs of BridgeLux diodes in total, providing PPF(Photosynthetic Photon Flux) of 2,766 μmol/S and a color temperature of 3416K with a power consumption of 1,000 watts. It is capable of operating at AC voltages from 100V to 277V with relative amperages.

FC-E1000W: The Innovative Designs For Diverse Indoor Grows 

The Mars Hydro FC-E1000W is more than just a ubiquitous 1000w LED grow light. It offers some unique designs made by Mars Hydro's R&D department, which provide essential features to promote plant growth and special structures to suit practical applications. What are they?

Targeted Full Spectrum Lighting For Growing Indoors

The full spectrum has proven to be the most effective spectra in the world of indoor cultivation, but the percentage of “colors” in the PAR range varies among LED manufacturers. 

Mars Hydro has been researching and engineering spectrum designs for many years to identify a universal beneficial spectrum for growers around the world. And this is it.

Spectrum: 660-665nm,2800-3000K,4800-5000K

Rich in red, blue, and green (the spectrum that proves indispensable), the Mars Hydro FC-E1000W LED grow light supports the full cycle of growth from seed to harvest - not too much red to grow too long and fragile stems at the seedling stage, nor too little red to grow thin leaves and small flowers.

Every spectrum was just right. The blue spectrum plays a role in plant growth, stimulating plant growth with the best efficacy, inducing stronger seedlings, and making the plant's leaves wider to capture more light to feed the plant itself so more accumulation of plant-based phytochemical is promoted to produce thicker leaves and greater buds. The red and deep red spectrum is the most effective food for plants to absorb(especially in the flowering phase), and the informative spectrum induces the flowering stage and sleeping period so speed up the growth process.

The green spectrum, on the other hand, is almost unavailable for photosynthesis and there is no scientific evidence of its effectiveness, however, it has been shown to be an indispensable spectrum in thousands of experiments. Cultivation without a green spectrum is fragile, lacking in nutrients, and slow!

This plant-centric spectrum from Mars Hydro is based on science and experiments to provide universal full-spectrum lighting for indoor growing.

Scalable Flexibility: Extendable Brackets Allowing For Two Cultivation Settings

Growers familiar with Mars Hydro know that the FC-E Series LED grow lights are flexible because they do not come in a unibody but require assembly and offer the possibility of DIY.

On top of that flexible design, the FC-E1000W LED grow light provides another scalable flexibility - extendable brackets.

In the standard form, the FC-E1000W is a 1.2x1.2m LED that covers a 4x4ft area in optimum and emits the most powerful output - up to 2,000 μmol/m²/s of PPFD. 

However, considering that most growers and farms may not need such an intense grow light most of the time, Mars Hydro paired another 2 extended support bars and brackets with the FC-E1000W to “transform” it into a 1.7x1.2m LED to cover a 4x6ft grow space. 

In this extended form, the output of the FC-E1000W is still quite strong, after all, it consumes 1000W, and is not too intense for private growers and small-room operators. The PPFD ranges from 1,000 to 1,300 μmol/m²/s in its core 4x6ft coverage. 

The extended form was designed for 4x6 or 4x8 grow tents, and mainly for commercial projects where there are rolling tables / rolling benches / grow trays. Commercial managers could use the extended FC-E1000W as a 4-ft-wide LED grow light or a 6-ft-wide grow light to fit in the indoor grow room designs you're using.

On top of that, DIY players could use the two extended support bars to build a side or bottom lighting for the plants - it’s all about imagination and electrical work. But please be careful when you do that!

Commercial Grow Light Designs For Easier Management

Are there any commercially viable LED grow lights out there that still can't be daisy-chained and dimmed?

The Mars Hydro FC-E1000W LED grow light features a daisy-chaining capacity of 30 grow lights in a series, and its dimming range is from 0 to 100% with no fixed light levels. 

These two features are quite important for commercial grows to save a lot of operation time and manual labour and to dynamically match the DLI (Daily Light Integral) of plants.

A well-controlled grow room should always be convenient.

FC-E1000W: The “Extreme” PPFD Chart

Among all the industry standards, the PPFD is the most important and the easiest to measure. 

As we mentioned in the beginning, the grow results are almost proportional to the grow Light Intensity in cannabis cultivation before the peak is reached. And the peak is 2,000 μmol/m²/s. 

Operators usually leverage the strongest PPFD three weeks before the end of the flowering stage. In this way, the buds will be bigger, juicer, and taste better. And when at this peak, the light penetration is able to provide deep downward light so that the side branches can receive sufficient photons to grow chunky buds.

But not all cultivation could handle this high PPFD. So, there’s another conventional peak, which is the optimal point for personal indoor growers: 1,000 μmol/m²/s. 

Therefore, if there’s one light able to emit the two peaks, that would be of great help! The FC-E1000W LED grow light, surely, has no problem achieving the two peak points while staying in a cooling status:

• In the standard form, FC-E1000W provides PPFD from 1,450 to 2,000 μmol/m²/s to its optimal coverage of 4x4 ft.
• In extended form, FC-E1000W sufficiently offers PPFD from1,050 to 1,300 μmol/m²/s to its optimal range of 4x6 ft.

Let’s take a glance at the beautiful PPFD chart of the FC-E1000W LED grow light:

As a result, the Mars Hydro FC-E1000W is the best 4x4 CO2 LED grow light, a grow light that is perfect for cultivation with the highest concentration of supplemented carbon dioxide to increase growth and production in an incredible speed! The estimated yield of dry buds can increase by 50%!

The Mars Hydro FC-E1000W is best suited for specific commercial growing settings, such as rolling tables of 4x6 feet in size.

Plant Lighting Beast In Your Garden

Grow tent growers can barely apply the FC-E1000W LED grow light in full potential to their cultivation because of its super intensity in the general 4x4 ft form. It’s a challenge to handle the high PPFD of 2,000 μmol/m²/s. The beast itself was designed for commercial projects where extreme values are needed, such as indoor grow rooms and vertical farms, and where tall plants with many flowers bloom on the side branches. Its superior power and specific spectrum help the photons penetrate down to the depths of the crop.

However, in the extended 4x6 foot format, the FC-E1000W grow light is able to go into grow tents and become a lighting solution for large tent growers; it is also the perfect grow lighting option for rolling tables and small grow room designs (grows with aisles in between).

Can you tame this lighting beast and make it a great helper for your grow? The Mars Hydro FC-E1000W LED grow light, a highly intense, scalable, and top-of-the-line grow light that is waiting for you to take the plunge!