[oldman]

I use 600w light, 3 of the each for about 6 flats, roughly 1300 seedlings. Taller plants are set around the edges to make use of light that would just go to waste if they weren't there to catch it. The lights sit on wire storage shelves so they aren't high off the floor and have better support than they'd get hanging. I did tent them in mylar emergency blankets for a month or so the first year, but that was too much hassle when I wanted to mist, rotate, or just check plants.



I have the lights on a timer and they operate from 11pm to 7am. If I think the plants need more light they might get another 4 hours in the afternoon. I do my health checks, moisture monitoring and whatnot in the morning after the lights are off. Since the lights are below eyelevel and not on much when I'm around them I don't worry about eye protection. If I were worried, I'd be using sunglasses since I doubt that even full spectrum LEDs are going to have harmful output at the power level and exposure I'm using. I wouldn't stare at the array when it was on, but my setup doesn't allow for that anyway. II'm fortunate enough to have a mostly empty bedroom upstairs I use as a plant room.



If you were in a commercial environment growing a high value crop that needed frequent pruning or whatever it is pot growers do, you might want to spring for top of the line eye protection. But a hobbist who tends plants once or twice a day can just shut down the lights if he's worried. You aren't growing a crop under lights, you're just giving your crop an indoor head start. Alive and reasonably healthy is all you're likely going for. Fruit, blooms, or prolificly growing vegetation aren't the initial goal in plants you're going to set out. Just use the light you need at a hight that puts most of it on your plants and you shouldn't need to worry.