Vintage1969
Member
Hi there, I'm thinking of getting a temperature gun to better measure my canopy, and in my clone dome. Any brands people have tried that they recommend?
-
As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.
Temperature Gun- what brand?
- Thread starter Vintage1969
- Start date
Brand matters less than what type of batteries it takes and most importantly; read the directions and follow them, these guns are designed to be used a certain distance minimum away to get an accurate reading, I can't count the number of times, myself included that I have seen people put the gun as close to whatever they are measuring as possible.
The battery thing is secondary, but some of them take AA and AAA instead of 9v.
Most already got extra AA/AAA's sitting around the house.
The battery thing is secondary, but some of them take AA and AAA instead of 9v.
Most already got extra AA/AAA's sitting around the house.
ChasingGreen
Member
Ryobi makes a good quality one that has a nice rubber exterior. It's only like $20 compared to the Harbor Freight one which is (guessing) $10.
I have to disagree. Harbor freight vs fluke....... big difference beyond the batteries. For me it is more important to get the correct values rather then saving a couple bucks.
if you want to be able to adjust the emissivity coefficient, you want a fluke gun. they have extensive tables of materials for the adjustment... thought i doubt plant surfaces is one of them.
these thermometers are NOT very accurate. they are great for detecting and measuring gradients of heat, and thats about it... looking for wet or missing insulation? these things are king(except for the fancy thermographic cameras of coarse)
these thermometers are NOT very accurate. they are great for detecting and measuring gradients of heat, and thats about it... looking for wet or missing insulation? these things are king(except for the fancy thermographic cameras of coarse)
A
acridlab
I like my Ryobi.. May not be dead nuts, scientifically perfect...
But I bet it's way more accurate than a node hanging in the room catching radiant heat, thus not giving a true dead nuts scientific read.
Maybe....
But I bet it's way more accurate than a node hanging in the room catching radiant heat, thus not giving a true dead nuts scientific read.
Maybe....
i too have a shitty 20$ meter... i use it on drywall only and for spotting studs and bad insulation.
please be carefull with your grilling...obviously you dont rely on it for safely cooking meats... but for those that might try, they have to be calibrated with the emissivity coefficient of each and every single material that they are measuring.
most are set up for a generic coefficient like drywall... the readings they take of metals is therefor not accurate. this is where the 100+ dollar fluke meters come into play.
look at this picture... ALL of these surfaces are at exactly the same temperature, they are just different materials. this is pretty much exactly how your ir thermometer sees materials.
"LesliesCube" by Pieter Kuiper - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LesliesCube.png#/media/File:LesliesCube.png
please be carefull with your grilling...obviously you dont rely on it for safely cooking meats... but for those that might try, they have to be calibrated with the emissivity coefficient of each and every single material that they are measuring.
most are set up for a generic coefficient like drywall... the readings they take of metals is therefor not accurate. this is where the 100+ dollar fluke meters come into play.
look at this picture... ALL of these surfaces are at exactly the same temperature, they are just different materials. this is pretty much exactly how your ir thermometer sees materials.
"LesliesCube" by Pieter Kuiper - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LesliesCube.png#/media/File:LesliesCube.png
the hand is probably not the same temp.... but you get the idea.
mmmk, thanx for warning us all on the meat safety grill thing.
btw people
this is what we risk going off topic in this forum these days
god save us
Vintage1969
Member
Which batteries would be better to use? Do you mean in terms of convenience, or longevity?
r2k
Member
My 2 cents.
I thought IR non-contact thermometers were adjusted to measure temps of black body radiatiors, like flat black items. You can check this easily if you put a piece of flat black paper (or wood, or anything) in a room and put a standard digital thermometer right next to it. Let it sit for several minutes and measure it with the IR meter. That should be the same as you measure with the digital thermometer. Get the two meters to read the same value (within a little bit).
The next step is to get some generic potted plants and perform the same test. You might see some variation with the plants compared to the flat black item because the emissivity of plants is not the same and plants also transpire water through the leaves and they tend to cool off from evaporation. Still, if you have no direct sunlight on the plant and good air circulation in the room, you can believe the leaves are about the same temp as the surrounding air. The digital thermometer can serve as a control to let you know what the true air temperature is. You can get a good idea on how the IR thermometer behaves with no radiated energy involved.
Once you have an idea of what to expect, time to go into the grow zone. Start with measuring temps after the lights have turned off. Again, compare to your digital thermometer. You might want to do this over a couple of days to be sure you are repeatable. Use the flat black object as a reference for what the air temp really is. If you use something like a piece of flat black construction paper, it will adjust to the surrounding air temperature very quickly.
Once you finally have an idea of how things work without lights, it's time to check out your toy with the lights on. You can use the digital thermometer, but expect lighted canopy to be a different temperature than the air and the flat black reference. You have to keep the flat black reference in the shade because it will heat up from the light just like plants do, probably more so because it is close to a perfect absorber for radiant energy. Just make a little canopy out of tin foil (or anything) and make sure your flat black reference stays out of direct illumination.
I suspect you will notice some differences but they won't be much at around room temperatures. The different brands have different features but all basically do the same thing. You can get an expensive meter that has all kinds of bells and whistles and basic meters don't. The one thing that is really useful is that IR thermometers tell you relative differences, so you will be able to easily see if changes you make in ventilation (or other changes) have changes in the plant canopy temperatures.
Keep in mind, canopies can change temperatures for many complex reasons, including differences in plant evaporation, Amount of time under lights, surrounding humidity of your incoming air, etc. You have to be really careful about drawing conclusions about what changes canopy temperatures without multiple repeated tests where you go back and forth and observe before/after values.
-r2k
I thought IR non-contact thermometers were adjusted to measure temps of black body radiatiors, like flat black items. You can check this easily if you put a piece of flat black paper (or wood, or anything) in a room and put a standard digital thermometer right next to it. Let it sit for several minutes and measure it with the IR meter. That should be the same as you measure with the digital thermometer. Get the two meters to read the same value (within a little bit).
The next step is to get some generic potted plants and perform the same test. You might see some variation with the plants compared to the flat black item because the emissivity of plants is not the same and plants also transpire water through the leaves and they tend to cool off from evaporation. Still, if you have no direct sunlight on the plant and good air circulation in the room, you can believe the leaves are about the same temp as the surrounding air. The digital thermometer can serve as a control to let you know what the true air temperature is. You can get a good idea on how the IR thermometer behaves with no radiated energy involved.
Once you have an idea of what to expect, time to go into the grow zone. Start with measuring temps after the lights have turned off. Again, compare to your digital thermometer. You might want to do this over a couple of days to be sure you are repeatable. Use the flat black object as a reference for what the air temp really is. If you use something like a piece of flat black construction paper, it will adjust to the surrounding air temperature very quickly.
Once you finally have an idea of how things work without lights, it's time to check out your toy with the lights on. You can use the digital thermometer, but expect lighted canopy to be a different temperature than the air and the flat black reference. You have to keep the flat black reference in the shade because it will heat up from the light just like plants do, probably more so because it is close to a perfect absorber for radiant energy. Just make a little canopy out of tin foil (or anything) and make sure your flat black reference stays out of direct illumination.
I suspect you will notice some differences but they won't be much at around room temperatures. The different brands have different features but all basically do the same thing. You can get an expensive meter that has all kinds of bells and whistles and basic meters don't. The one thing that is really useful is that IR thermometers tell you relative differences, so you will be able to easily see if changes you make in ventilation (or other changes) have changes in the plant canopy temperatures.
Keep in mind, canopies can change temperatures for many complex reasons, including differences in plant evaporation, Amount of time under lights, surrounding humidity of your incoming air, etc. You have to be really careful about drawing conclusions about what changes canopy temperatures without multiple repeated tests where you go back and forth and observe before/after values.
-r2k
I
iffey
the correct reading is only relevant to the thermometer you have in your hand right now... buy three Harbor Freight and three of any other brand.... side by side measuring the temps at the same point and I'll bet you have 6 different readings...
household thermostats are a good measure, take your infrared thermometer and put that red dot on your thermostat, odds that the readings are the same are slim... that 72F may be 74 on the IRT.
whatever brand of IR thermometer one has, its' readings are most pertinent to the grow area it is used in... I've had my harbor freight IRT for ??? 3 years, same batteries, don't know why that would be an issue.
A
acridlab
My cheapo ryobi is pretty accurate. I point it at multiple thermostats and thermometers in the room and its surprisingly always right on point...
