Light Meter (PPFD) for LED/UV/IR
 

Hello!

Does anyone have any recommendations for an affordable meter to measure PPFD that works on LED/UV/IR? I would like something decent without breaking the bank :rofl:

By definition a quantum (PAR) light meter will only measure PAR radiation, which excludes UV and IR. We have some very expensive (think 4 digits) quantum meters at work to measure either total PAR or different wavelengths of PAR (blue,green,red, far-red) and neither measure outside that range.

Why are you interested in UV and IR?

The lights I have are LED + UV/IR. But now that I think of it, UV/IR would fall outside the PAR spectrum anyways so I guess they are not included in PPFD? What exactly is the benefit of UV/IR - blooming?

But essentially anything to measure PAR is expensive is what I am hearing ;)

I think that 'cheap' quantum meters are at least $150, and then you may have problems them not being calibrated properly or only calibrated to su light. They are far more expensive that standard lux or fc meters simply because the sensors are more complex. Li-cor makes very good meters, but they are at least $400!

Thanks for all the info! I might have to splurge at some point :biggrin:

Don't go for the Dr. Meter instruments on Amazon. They are complete trash. (but affordable trash haha)

Are you sure you need those expensive light meters? Grow your plants for a while and you'll have the best indication of all.

Agreed, money has been invested into plants and lights for now. I did see that you can rent a quantum meter online for a week at a time. Kind of a neat idea if you just wanted to test some different configurations.

I did rent the Apogee full spectrum meter for a week and then decided to buy one. I am sure it is not as accurate as reference instruments costing many thousands, but it is better than eyeballing. I have many thousands of dollars invested in orchids and it takes a long time to evaluate a change in growing conditions. It is worth the expense of the meter to not lose plants or waste a year of substandard growth.