cheap good PAR meter

[Tonygreen]

Does anyone know of any options that arent like 3-400 bucks?

 

[Tonygreen]

anyone own the Hydrofarm Quantum PAR Light Meter?
Wonderin if its any good since its around 150 instead of the hundreds for other ones im seein...

 

[MIway]

Its 200... Iv got one... Cant compare to anything else though

http://www.specmeters.com/brands/lightscout/quantum-meters/

 

[R043]

Not sure if this option would be good enough for your needs and I never tried it myself though I have read good reviews.

It's a guide to build your spectrometer quite easily, they even ship a premade one at low cost. I am confident it is easy then to calculate the PAR and you get more information on the different band of your light.

http://spectralworkbench.org/

Good luck

 

[atticflowers]

I know a guy who sells em DIY ones for about $50

 

[great brozini]

They have a free one to measure lux as an app for your smart phone if you care to try that first...

Quick search led me to this one... https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/galactica-luxmeter/id666846635?mt=8

Granted it's LUX not PAR, so more measuring the visible spectrum as opposed to photosynthetic spectrum, but it is free and should give you a good baseline at least. Never tried it personally, but might have to now

 

[MrBelvedere]

You can rent or borrow from the aquarium store

 

[TheArchitect]

theres a conversion from lux to par based on the type of bulb i.e. MH, HPS, fluorescent etc.


http://www.apogeeinstruments.com/conversion-ppf-to-lux/


to get a ppf of 1000, you'd be shooting for a lux of ~85,000 under an HPS light

 

[GoeRilla]

Wonder how white cobs compare with the others, same or better than hps i hope.

Rilla.

 

[amanda88]

Does anyone know of any options that arent like 3-400 bucks?

Many Shops rent them out ...see your local home depot, pet store, even your local photographic dealer.