Calculate PAR With A Cheap LUX Meter Easily | LUX vs PAR Meter Part 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มี.ค. 2020
- Thanks to andrewbee82 for inspiring this video. I had never tried this before because I have jumped right into using PAR meters due to the dependability and accuracy I needed to make my tests for my channel, valid.
This is surprisingly accurate and dependable enough for white light sources and once you dial in your lux number you won't even need to use the multiplication factor. You will get know the lux number on the meter.
I cannot speak for other lux meters as the multiplication factor could be a little off if other brands measure lux slightly differently. If you wish to use a lux meter and want to trust its readout using this multiplier, consider purchasing this one using the link below.
Affiliate links -
Apogee MQ500 - amzn.to/2I95qFw
Dr. Meter LUX Meter - amzn.to/32GO10a
Cheaper LUX meter - amzn.to/38hcavA
You can can also use your smart phone with an app, but that won't be as reliable.
LUX meter vs PAR meter - • LUX vs PAR Meter | Can...
Check out this link to a "MIGRO" video for a few other conversion charts. I made this video about a month ago and never posted it due to my videos I had previously already slotted. Right now I am about a month ahead of schedule with pre-uploaded content. I figured this would be a good time to release this since Shane over at MIGRO recently released a related video. th-cam.com/video/YiVVAePNtXo/w-d-xo.html
Growing Answers in his video the multiplier is higher. 0,020-0,022. This is due to a different luxmeter used by Shane I believe. I have a dr meter and a cheaper one. The cheaper reads almost half lux. Where Dr meter reads 30k, the cheaper says 18k. 🤷🏻♂️
andrewbee82 I know. That’s why I mention that in the description.
Growing Answers what multiplier setting are you useing on the dr meter is it x10 or is it x 100 and then the x.015 im going to test some 3500 k cree cobs the 3070
retro80s the multiplier didn’t matter cuz it’s the same total lux. It’s different in all the pics because it depends on the light intensity.
Growing Answers ok thanks for that so if i get the overliad reading eg the single 1 on the display just up the range till i get the read correct then ?
first time viewer, just subscribed. Appreciate the information you shared in this video alone. I'll be checking out the channel for sure. Thanks man.
Excellent information. Thank you for all of your videos and for sharing your knowledge. I like that the bloopers or mishaps he makes are left in the videos. The time laps video a few years back with the soil/dwc is one of the coolest videos I've ever seen. I never knew that after the lights go out plants start doing this disco furry party dance until the sun comes up? Great time laps video.
Thank you for clarifying this. Gonna spring for a proper PAR meter.
I watched shanes video earlier its nice to share the findings as many dont want to spend 500 quid on a meter ..great video upload
Thank you, short and great video.
Whew. Thanks brother. I got the exact Dr Meter model arriving in 2 days I ordered off ebay... total coincidence. I watched the previous video a few minutes ago and was bummed obviously. I am using all white simple led grow lights. I was going to say this is priceless... but it's actually worth about $325 I guess LOL. Too many bills at the moment for the fancy meter, so THANK YOU for taking the time to do this follow-up. I know it's not much, but I make sure to let the ads run for your videos so you make something. Much love again from Vegas. Hope work and the wife are both well :)
Literally went through this a year later on this date at 2am studying lol
Groundbreaking content indeed, much obliged good sir.
still cant belive that your channel didnt explode by now. Ive learned a lot from you. I really liked your air vs no air. and the trick by heating up tubes and then pinching the end was awesome.
Maybe compare different hydro nutrients or go into ratios? and how NPK and so an are achieved in different wys. Ive heard some nutrients are more available than others.
Thanks for the awesome video sir !
Always the best, thanks..
16 Apogee sellers thumbs downed this video.
thanks for the explanation. appreciate ya
Awesome thanks!!
Very useful . Thank you
Very cool thank you.
good video bro. migro and your video a great to compare with. gracias amigo👊
Thanks!!!
I just saw Shane's video the other day. I got a lux meter just to give me a ballpark number. (I use white lights)
no wonder my lux meter reads so high off my old Mars hydro 300 LED, i still use it though, i put it 10 inch away and it flowers fine 1 plant you can squeeze, 2 small plant's and put it 12 inch, also or have it next to a newr LED model and have the new 1 hung 12 inch and the mars 300 10inch and get a good color spectrum. i also still use my 150 HPS sometimes, it was my first grow light i got it in 2014 used and it still works.
Thanks,.. this is helpful.. grow on green thumbs.
There’s phone apps that claim to be able to calculate par using your phone camera, would you be able to do a video on that if you havnt already? I doubt it’s accurate but it would be interesting to see
the multiplicator changes from sensor to sensor and from spectre to spectre.. every led manufactor has his own specre for the diffenrent tempretures. that means: YOU CAN'T USE ONE MULTIPLICATOR FOR ONE TEMPRETURE!
if you want to use this method, you have to take the exact same products used in the video. the used diodes included.
if your diodes are not the same, it wont work accurate!
How close should I be when measuring? Please help. It's for a planted aquarium. I am measuring 120 par about two feet away from the light. So is it just 1.8 par ?
You mean’t 120 Lux, correct? If so, then yes that’s 1.8 PAR.
Which would be the best meter to measure how much sun is getting through my corrugated plastic in my greenhouse ?
Any lux meter. Could even use an app for iPhone.
I have that exact lux meter. I bought mine about 10 years ago and good lord I did not spend freaking $200+ dollars not even close; more like $30. Amazon is out of their mind. You can get them at a fraction of the price elsewhere. There is no justification to command $200 for a basic lux meter. Love the video though. For anyone that has this meter, you'll see on the instructions a bell curve peaking at 550nm. It makes sense to reduce the reading by 85% and it correlates to what a par meter would read.
what about blue 460 led lights?
I've successfully grown all kids of stuff with ordinary "60W" LED household lights from dollar tree/home depot with the front diffuser lens broken off... I've always been curious to know what the effective PAR values are w/out having to spend a crazy amount of money for a meter.. good to have this info to use a lux meter since they are just white lights
Results?
@@chimpalahee - great results growing lettuce, herbs, and I even got a tomato plant to grow and put on green tomatoes.. I had to move before I could see if they would ripen.. but I was still very impressed. Still experimenting with the cheap 9W and 14W homedepot lights.
hey check shane's video at MIGRO he did just that
its possible to use an app on an iphone to mesure lux?
It’s not as reliable. As you wouldnt be able to use a conversion factor reliably with it.
Been testing this for some time, different lux meters measure VERY different from one another, depending on wich lamp was used to calibrate em (or if they were calibrated at all). I say this because i had like 3 different lux meters and they all gave me VERY different results on the same setup, differences going up to 3x the value if u use a non-calibrated lux meter. You would need to know the exact lamp used to calibrate it, than compare to par meter, than create some sort of formula, wich will change depending on ur lamp. If seen other youtubers using 0,026 factor for hps bulbs, wich surely is because his meter was calibrated differently from urs, it sucks, i know.
I’m surprised tool hire company’s don’t hire out stuff like par metres
Could you use this conversion factor if the lights are white, blue and red?
It won’t be all that accurate.
@@GrowingAnswers thank you so much for the reply. Your content is awesome I subbed a week ago.
I am 2 months into trying hydroponics and 🤯 is all I will say 😂🤣.
Amongst several other things I'm trying to dial in my lighting.
So PAR(PPF) are different than PPFD correct? A chart I have says 100 to 300 PPFD for seedlings but at a store today the print on the box says PPFD=40.
Is there a conversion for that because the readings im getting with the same lux meter you have are way off.
Does it work on full spectrum 300w led light?
The watch doesn’t matter. As long as it’s White light
Can I also use just a phone app to measure it? Can you maybe do a comparison?
Phone app is close enough.
@@GrowingAnswers Great thanks!
Im a electrician i only have the lux meter at this tim is 500-750x100 lux a acceptable range for flowering this measurement wis at canopy hight
If my LED light is 3500K and has 660nm diodes, will that mess up the reading? Thanks.
kmkcorner I wanna know the same thing mines 3000k with 660 nm
I also have 3000k, can the meter provide an accurate reading with this light?
So the 660nm would not throw the calculation off??
Yes , a bit, don't you watch the vid ?
Ciao Andrew, scusami se ti rispondo qui, ora ho sistemato il link al mio Amazon, non riuscivo a trovare il tuo commento quindi ti ho risposto qui.
Will this work if I have 660 nm chips on my light?
harvey frost depends on the ratio and/or intensity. If the light appears pink or red to your eye there is a good chance your par value won’t be accurate. I’ve tested with plenty of white lights with red diodes but there is so few compared to the white chips that it made no difference.
@@GrowingAnswers I got a Spider Farmer 4000 and most diodes look white with a few scattered red ones in a couple rows. Will this work in this case?
@@Mr_PNW yes
@@GrowingAnswers Hey dude! I saw the next 'recommended' video and he said to multiply by 0.023 for 3000k, 0.022 for 3500k, and 0.024 for 4000k. But your 0.015 seems very consistent. I'm wondering if you've seen his video and if I should stick to your multiplication factor or his? I heard you say it didn't matter whether it is 3000k or 4000k but his numbers would seemingly give me quite a different par value than your 0.015! So now I'm worried, Where do you think your inaccuracies come from between each other's readings? You clearly show your numbers are consistent, but his seem to be very individually calculated. Who am I to go with?!
@@jillranson8060 meter variations cause it. what works for one does not work for another. And the Kelvin temp has little effect. unless you want to get a very exact number for extreme accuracy which for the average user doesn’t matter.
HOW ABOUT ANDROID LIGHT SENSOR, the one that auto adjust our smartphone's screen brightness depending on room light. I use it with an app doggo lux light meter, and the reading is quite accurate comparing one source of light to the others.
Inside my house I get reading like 40-200 (lamp is in the ceiling), then if I go outside, it goes to like 70-400, near my fence under canopy it's 1000, DIRECT SUNLIGHT IS 90000-123000, impressive. Under Neon white lamp I got reading 1000-ish, but 8 leds on a digital microscope got 3,000 points. I don't know if this measurement is universal, whether it will be more or less the same using ANY lux meter, but judging from all light sources I tested it scales about right and accurate among different light sources, with sun scoring 123000 from far above the earth.
It makes me wonder if sun light is that strong how indoor plants with just lamp from electricity can compete with that ? Or is that only the brightness, while whats neeeded isnt that ? but still ppl use that metal around the plants/lightsources to beam light reflection all over the surrounding area, and that translates to bigger score, I saw a vid he has a setup of 27,000 lumens?(dunno if that's the correct unit measurement) , using leds.
Yes 27,000 is nothing crazy. Your phone sensor is nowhere near the accuracy of an actual good quality sensor. The sun can at full blast give around 40,000 lux. My grow light gives me between 20,000 and 25,000 when massured at the plants height. Yes the sun emits imaginable amounts energie and you cant compare grow light to the sun just based on energie output, but 1: the sun is really really really far away, around 150 million km(93 million miles) while grow lights are really close to the plants. Try growing plants while you put the grow light 3 meters high(10 feet). You'll see how fast that light becomes almost useless. It also explains why the sun needs to be so powerfull to be usefull 2: ozonelayer blocks a lot of light(mainly uv). I hope this explained it for you
@@seb9940 I see, thanks for the explanation. So 20k+ lux sounds about right for growing plants then.
Because I grow some veggies using hydroponic but my house is fully surrounded with canopy and with no direct contact to the sun. My hydroponic plants location has around 10k-30k lux I hope that's enough. I usually just move my plants around where the sunlight beam can enter from any of the sides, but that gets tiring even though I only use like 40x30 cm container with 9 holes.
So what is the magic number that I'm looking for if i buy the dr lux meter? 10k lux for veg? 7k for flower?
Just reverse the math to get the numbers. Figure out what PAR numbers you need for both those and DIVIDE (not multiple) by .015.
For example in his video the;
Lux meter reads 9980 multipled by .015 = 149.7
The PAR meter reads 144. Dang close.
So say you want 600 PAR;
600 divided by .015 = 40,000
So your Lux meter needs to be close to 40k.
I think I wrote that right, its late.
Thanks .. doesn’t have to be perfect … PARFECT …… just close . This is close enough
Is it the same with sunlight?
Yes
Hello bro i have a Full Spectrum 3500k, 660nm+730nm, 660nm+730nm+385nm. i have to do the same? for example im having right now 25000lux x 0.15= 375ppfd¿? it really works?
i was tryng to use this www.waveformlighting.com/horticulture/convert-lux-to-ppfd-online-calculator but i dont know if it works :( im so lost that i think im going to buy a ppfd meter but i dont have money right now :(
If you have the same meter then it’s going to work. No blurple lights
lux app users anyone?
The prices on those things are absurd.
Yes but remember how expensive the lux capacitor was in back to the future? Now they’re cheap. When all states here in the US allow growing pot they should drop in price. :)
Lux meter measure only the human eye spectrum, plants uses only uv purple to dark red light and no invisible light to human eye. Using only 10000k to 2700k should be lux meter only so... All plants uses mostly 10 000 lux at veg and 7000 lux for flowering but you need that from top to bottom of plant. Never fail
ur not test any thing worth my time
Lux meter measure only the human eye spectrum, plants uses only uv purple to dark red light and no invisible light to human eye. Using only 10000k to 2700k should be lux meter only so... All plants uses mostly 10 000 lux at veg and 7000 lux for flowering but you need that from top to bottom of plant. Never fail