It is very hard to burn plants with LEDs unless they are touching the light
Mornin' Dabs
I saw that episode of TDG on YouTube with Shane from Migro lights last night. He said something I've been thinking about. Lightburn. I've been thinking this is something you can get with LEDs from simply too many photons of light
But its heat, isn't it? Coming as a HPS grower there is so much to think about but thanks to watching that last night there is less. I worry less about the height of my light now.
To 'Bruce it up a bit':
Yeah, as a former HPS grower, you won't see true 'heat light burn' like you're thinking (unless it touches like Dab said).
What you will see, is a bunch of people still claiming that 'light burn is realz / too much light / it burnsss - just look at my plantz!'
What's happening there is more nutrient-based / vpd-based damage because of the whole 'light-density decreases / increases with square of distance' thing. It's that the top parts still can reach a point where they get sooo many (not necessarily too many) photons that transpiration / photosynthesis / nutrient utilization / etc at those portions can't keep up. And, technically, photons still heat things - just through radiative heat transfer and not conductive heat transfer. So the 'local' vpd (meaning at those locations of the plant, not the vpd of the 'bulk' tent / room / area itself) also increases which makes things worse.
Meaning, what LED growers typically see would probably be better described as 'metabolic and/or mechanical' light-based 'damage or stress'.
In those cases, the actual cause and fix is likely more sap-based / soil pH-based / etc, but people typically just say 'raise the damn lights'. So, the confusion / misconception stays alive within the community. For example, I put your question into Google's Gemini AI, and the response is attached. It just gave a generic / high-level response that you see everywhere in the vein of 'should I choose HPS or LED' and 'here's things you already did wrong'. No help in explaining or clarifying.
I still claim that AI can't grow cannabis.
But, back to you as a former HPS grower - yeah, light burn as you know it doesn't happen with LEDs and you didn't need to read this.
ppp
