Eco -Blaze LED Lux meter readings w/pics

[TorturedSoul]

I didn't even catch the "ECO" part of the name of your lights. That is a very valid point indeed. I fear that the long-term future of agriculture on this planet will, by necessity, require growing with artificial lighting and at that time the question of low energy consumption will not be an option but an absolute requirement.

And it's never too soon to consider conservation.

Kudos.

 

[The Builder]

TorturedSoul,

To get back to the whole killing thing. When I raised the lights to about 8" from canopy and started over with new 1 year old strawberry plants, they flowered so heavy that I couldn't keep up with the pollinating of the flowers (no bee's to pollinate) by hand and the harvesting just kept on coming. I had more strawberries than I knew what to do with from 20 plants.

I think the reason for the crispy leaves was from heat generated from my powerful LED's. However, my heat sinks weigh about 12 pounds in a 288 watt unit. The whole unit itself weighs in at about 22 pounds. I can feel the heat of the LED's when I put my hand in front of them. My LED's are rated for 50,000+ hours of operation. I simply think through all of my extensive research, I found the most powerful 1 watt LED's on the market, with a rating of 50,000+. On my website there are pictures, in the gallery of pictures, of giant basil plants ( small tree size) grown under one 288 watt unit in a period of 10-12 weeks.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Sounds interesting. I won't dilute your thread by discussing it here, but I wish we had a forum for discussions of growing other types of plants. The same products that we use aren't just for cannabis, lol.

Thanks again for being a participating sponsor. May your efforts pay dividends a hundredfold.

 

[The Builder]

TorturedSoul,

I would like to continue this discussion with you. I love to talk shop. I can't say that I grow cannabis because I live in PA. and my website can't because its federal/nationwide and its Incorporated in PA. The only thing I can say is to talk to my business partner, "firequeen".

 

[Munki]

This may be an alternative meter that is more geared towards horticulture and sells for around $300.

https://www.apogee-inst.com/manuals/MQ-100200300.pdf

I'm not in any way saying that this meter is the only one useful and that lumens or LUX measurements are not, just that it is an alternative.

EDIT: BTW, I would love to do the demo grow for you if that is how it works out.

 

[The Builder]

Hey everyone,

The next round of testing is coming soon. This time, I'm using a Quantum meter or they call it a PPF meter. I will be able to give the exact PAR value of my LED grow light at different distances. I have the meter on order. However, I didn't want to pay for expedited shipping. It shouldn't be too long.

 

[Munki]

Hey everyone,

The next round of testing is coming soon. This time, I'm using a Quantum meter or they call it a PPF meter. I will be able to give the exact PAR value of my LED grow light at different distances. I have the meter on order. However, I didn't want to pay for expedited shipping. It shouldn't be too long.

Wow. Thanks Builder. Really appreciate you showing us the real data.

 

[fuzzygrass]

your site is very difficult to navigate and IMO has way to much going on (very busy with graphics) making it very hard to read it became very annoying to me. My I suggest simplifying it and focusing on your quality products you are trying to sell.

This is just my opinion so please don't take it personally.

 

[The Builder]

fuzzygrass,

We've stripped the website of a ton of unnecessary crap. However, when my business partner and I started this we didn't think about the flash content on the website builder we chose, "Sitecube". So, we are stuck with it until our new site is ready and finishing the new site, in a timely manor, is dependant on how much product we sell. Trust me we don't like it much either but, its all we could afford at the time. By the way, opinions are always personal in delivery, its the way you feel about a particular subject or product or situation and I do take constructive criticism well so, why don't you show me your website and I can learn from the way you have it set up. Thanks for your input and support.

 

[Weed420]

Great thread Builder. Have you tested to see what temps you're putting out?
Like say 14 inches from the led's how hot is it getting after about an hour?

 

[The Builder]

Great thread Builder. Have you tested to see what temps you're putting out?
Like say 14 inches from the led's how hot is it getting after about an hour?

Thanks for the question. I have not done that yet but, I will and get back to you in a little while.

 

[WestRider23]

Hey Builder thanks for the great thread. Had a question for you...you say the 48w can only grow one plant, so does that mean the 288w can grow 6?

 

[The Builder]

Westsrider23,

All growing styles are subjective to the grower. I feel the best method to gain the most yield is SCROG. LED lights perform there best with this method. If I were you, I would grow 2-3 plants under a 24" x 36" screen with the 288 watt unit, train the branching to grow evenly in the screen and have 16-18 nice thick cola's growing at the same level and receiving the same amount of light. Another good method for LED lighting is to grow 10-12 small single cola plants with nice thick top cola's, only vegging for 5-7 days with a nicely rooted clone. However, here is what can be done with my lights

Let me break it down for you:

Small = 12-18" single main cola. Clone to flower is just as it reads; when taking a rooted cutting and placing it under 12/12 light right away.
medium = 18-24" 2-3 cola's
Large = 24-36" multiple cola's

48 Watt- 2 small clone to flower or 1 medium plant
96 watt- 3 small clone to flower or 2 medium
144 watt- 4 clone to flower or 2 medium or 1 large plants
196 watt-6 clone to flower or 3 medium or 2 large plants
240 watt- 8 clone to flower or 4 medium or 3 large plants
288 watt- 10-12 clone to flower or 4 medium or 3-4 large plants

I hope this guide helps you in making a good decision. Also, this is only a guide as to what can be grown. All of this information is subjective with growing styles and grower ability. Thanks for your interest.

 

[WestRider23]

Thanks...very helpful!

 

[The Builder]

Great thread Builder. Have you tested to see what temps you're putting out?
Like say 14 inches from the led's how hot is it getting after about an hour?

Here is the temperature of the ambient air (out) and under the LED's @14" (in)

 

[crunkyeah]

Hey builder(and whoever else), I have a quick question for ya: are lux and candelas/lumen different?

I need some good solid information to research about that but I just can't seem to find it haha, thanks!

 

[Munki]

Hey builder(and whoever else), I have a quick question for ya: are lux and candelas/lumen different?

I need some good solid information to research about that but I just can't seem to find it haha, thanks!

I believe that LUX values are an aggregate of the different visible wavelengths of light. It is concerned with VISIBLE light and therefore some wavelengths have higher LUX values than other wavelengths. The human eye has different sensitivity levels for different colors and they account for that in LUX meters. So, LUX isn't so simple and doesn't necessarily equate to good growing light. For example, the human eye is pretty sensitive to green light so the LUX meter would show a high number under a green light but that would not grow plants. Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF) only concerns itself with light wavelengths between 400 and 700 nm and gives equal weight to all the wavelengths inbetween.

 

[The Builder]

Hey builder(and whoever else), I have a quick question for ya: are lux and candelas/lumen different? YES

I need some good solid information to research about that but I just can't seem to find it haha, thanks!

The lux (symbol: lx) is the SI unit of illuminance and luminous emittance. It is used in photometry as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface. It is analogous to the radiometric unit watts per square metre, but with the power at each wavelength weighted according to the luminosity function, a standardized model of human visual brightness perception.

Explanation
Illuminance is a measure of how much luminous flux is spread over a given area. One can think of luminous flux as a measure of the total "amount" of visible light present, and the illuminance is a measure of the intensity of illumination on a surface. A given amount of light will illuminate a surface more dimly if it is spread over a larger area, so illuminance is inversely proportional to area.
In SI, luminous flux is measured in lumens. One lux is equal to one lumen per square metre:


Lux versus lumen
The difference between the lux and the lumen is that the lux takes into account the area over which the luminous flux is spread. A flux of 1,000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1,000 lux. However, the same 1,000 lumens, spread out over ten square metres, produces a dimmer illuminance of only 100 lux.
Achieving an illuminance of 500 lux might be possible in a home kitchen with a single fluorescent light fixture with an output of 12,000 lumens. To light a factory floor with dozens of times the area of the kitchen would require dozens of such fixtures. Thus, lighting a larger area to the same level of lux requires a greater number of lumens.
Lux versus footcandle

One footcandle ≈ 10.764 lux. The footcandle (or lumen per square foot) is a non-SI unit of illuminance. Like the BTU, it is mainly only in common use in the United States, particularly in construction-related engineering and in building codes. Because lux and footcandles are different units of the same quantity, it is perfectly valid to convert footcandles to lux and vice versa.
The name "footcandle" conveys "the illuminance cast on a surface by a one-candela source one foot away." As natural as this sounds, this style of name is now frowned upon, because the dimensional formula for the unit is not foot · candela, but lumen/sq ft. Some sources do however note that the "lux" can be thought of as a "metre-candle" (i.e. the illuminance cast on a surface by a one-candela source one metre away). A source that is farther away provides less illumination than one that is close, so one lux is less illuminance than one footcandle. Since illuminance follows the inverse-square law, and since one foot = 0.3048 m, one lux = 0.30482 footcandle ≈ 1/10.764 footcandle.
In practical applications, as when measuring room illumination, it is very difficult to measure illuminance more accurately than ±10%, and for many purposes it is quite sufficient to think of one footcandle as about ten lux.



What it all boils down to is LUX is a measurement of all visable light, usable and unusable.

By the way the quantum meter should be here soon.

 

[Herborizer]

fuzzygrass,

We've stripped the website of a ton of unnecessary crap. However, when my business partner and I started this we didn't think about the flash content on the website builder we chose, "Sitecube". So, we are stuck with it until our new site is ready and finishing the new site, in a timely manor, is dependant on how much product we sell. Trust me we don't like it much either but, its all we could afford at the time. By the way, opinions are always personal in delivery, its the way you feel about a particular subject or product or situation and I do take constructive criticism well so, why don't you show me your website and I can learn from the way you have it set up. Thanks for your input and support.

Now it explains why I can't see your website. I am on an iPad. iPad doesn't support flash.

 

[The Builder]

Can't you download a flash app?