Measuring 'white' LED's with Lux meter.

bodderz

bodderz

Active Member
Don't know the full gen on this at all but as i understood it I should avoid trying to measure blurple lights with a lux meter but 'white' type leds are more suitable to measure with a lux meter? I have a couple of SF1000 led panels and have been using a lux meter on them which is fine for me measuring them in relative way (from dim to full brightness) over the weeks - but is a general rule you cannot rely on the average lux meter to measure LED's compared to other types of grow lights?
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
When it comes to plants they don't care how bright (in lux) your light is, it cares about the photon count (ppfd, or par meter). In order to get relative intensities a lux meter is fine. And for absolute values: the main thing is to look at your plants and not the meter, plant signs of overlighting is more important what your meter says
 
bodderz

bodderz

Active Member
Rocket Soul said:
When it comes to plants they don't care how bright (in lux) your light is, it cares about the photon count (ppfd, or par meter). In order to get relative intensities a lux meter is fine. And for absolute values: the main thing is to look at your plants and not the meter, plant signs of overlighting is more important what your meter says
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yes i can see that common sense should prevail, trial and error etc. thanks.

@Star Dog yes I was never suggesting a phone or app but that's good advice, cheers.
 
.Smoke

.Smoke

Well-Known Member
If you're using an actual lux meter 45,000-50,000 lux (as a general rule) will give you around the maximum par the plants can handle without Co2. (I run mine between 38-45k)
 
bodderz

bodderz

Active Member
I see a lot of reference to the 40k - 50K area for vegging and aim for that best i can. Approaching and during early/mid flower I crank up to 90k+ (relatively) in my box with a high temp + co2. No visible damage on my top buds/leaves so far and no other signs of light burn I've noticed and was really pleased with the quality. It's funny as the plants can only be an inch or two from the light but the clear prop roof stops a fair amount of the radiating heat (that close) from giving me any hot spots in the canopy, so far anyway!
 
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.Smoke

.Smoke

Well-Known Member
bodderz said:
I see a lot of reference to the 40k - 50K area for vegging and aim for that best i can. Approaching and during early/mid flower I crank up to 90k+ (relatively) in my box with a high temp + co2. No visible damage on my top buds/leaves so far and no other signs of light burn I've noticed and was really pleased with the quality. It's funny as the plants can only be an inch or two from the light but the clear prop roof stops a fair amount of the radiating heat (that close) from giving me any hot spots in the canopy, so far anyway!
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90k? Jeebus...
I couldn't go more than 60k in air cooled hoods with hps before getting massive foxtailing.
90k is like...
Operation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Badger_001.jpg
But if it works it works I guess.
 
C

ComfortCreator

Well-Known Member
I started out running to 75k at the tops in my first run with LEDs and that worked fine. I find 65k to be a better target. My 2c .smoke is although they may not be able to use much above 50k, the measurement is the top, so everything below gets less. I have found they can take more and the guidelines of about 65 to 75k max at tops to be good. 50k is a very safe and successful level with any strain though so hard to argue it's a good a baseline max to go up from.
 
bodderz

bodderz

Active Member
I'm in a large propogator so it's probably easier to manage when pushing things, Also the lights only have to be on half power (a fair bit cooler than max) to get high light intensity levels, i'm only lighting a box the size of a dollshouse really, ive upped the light ratio by downsizing my space ratio quite a lot lol.
 
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