In This Issue LEDs For Life Plants, Light, and LEDs Part 9 Featured Distributor Access Discounts Santa Clara, California 1-866-647-0624 www.accessdiscounts Featured Product: LGM5 Pro-5 All of the benefits and features of the Professional bar with a 100% increase in light energy. Promotes the growth and development of all photosynthesizing organisms (plants, algae, bacteria) commonly found in hobby, commercial, and scientific areas of interest. This is the highest performance, most spectrally rich plant light source in the world. Receive 10% off of your purchase of the LGM5 model in the month of December by simply mentioning that you are a reader of the LED Gardener. (Enter into Special Requests if using our website shopping cart.) Order now. 1-866-414-7244 Care to Comment? The LED Gardener appreciates all the input we receive from our readers. If you would like to submit an article or pictures; or if you would like to comment on a current article please send submissions and comments or questions to angela@led-grow-master.com You are receiving this email because you subscribed at led-grow-master.com If you do not wish to receive this newsletter :Request your name removed by emailing angela@led-grow-master.com Contact LED Grow Master Global: Admin@led-grow-master.com |
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| December 1, 2008 Volume 3, Issue 12 |
LEDs For Life LED grow lights are becoming most well known by achieving electrical efficiencies that were unheard of 5 years ago. It is time to give credit to another feature that may be under represented but is a breakthrough on the same level as electrical efficiency.. This feature is lifetime. Our led grow lights are rated for 100,000 hours of operation. If you do the math on this you will see that you can run your led grow lights for twenty-four hours a day, everyday of the year and the LGM bars will likely last over 11 years. This is 10-20 times longer than traditional grow lights and twice as long as the red and blue 1 watt LEDs that have recently entered the market as grow lights. Let's look at how this lifetime adds up versus HID. For the sake of comparing to traditional lighting we usually suggest using coverage area. A 250 watt HPS is rated for a 3' x 3' area. As a generalization- we would use three LGM3 grow lights to cover this same area as primary lighting. If we were to light this area for 16 hours a day- the LGM3 bulbs would last for 21 years. During this time you would have replaced your original 250 watt HPS bulbs approximately 20 times. The retail price of 3 LGM3 led grow lights is $610.00 (USD). The retail price of 21- 250 watt HPS bulbs is about $1,468.95. In conclusion, by simply eliminating the need to replace your HPS bulbs every year, your LEDs actually pay for their own replacements while still leaving money in your pocket. You also save the earth from 21 bulbs containing mercury, save 20 trips to the gardening supply store, and reduce your electricity from 250 watts to 24 watts. That's electrical efficiency. Long live LEDs! --AL
What instruments are used to measure light? A photometer is any type of instrument used to measure light. There are many different kinds of photometers, some of which are common household instruments. For example, modern cameras all have a built in photometer that helps the camera set exposure times and apertures. Professional photographers often use a separate, hand-held photometer to measure the light reflected from different objects in their setup, yet this type of photometer is very similar to those built directly into household cameras. Other types of photometers are used for measuring levels of sunlight. Some are simple hand-held devices that look similar to the photometers used in photography. Others have remote sensors that send light measurements back to a computer. A specialized group of photometers used for measuring sunlight are called PAR meters. PAR is an acronym for Photosynthetically Active Radiation, which refers to that portion of the spectrum of sunlight that scientists have determined contains the light colors plants use for photosynthesis. These types of meters excel at measuring differences on sunlight levels, and as an example, are commonly used in testing the light levels inside greenhouses. There are also highly specialized photometers called spectroradiometers which are used more in laboratories than in the field. Highly sensitive devices, spectroradiometers not only measure the total amount of light, they also bread it down by color, giving a more complete analysis of the light being tested. These are the types of instruments used by lighting manufacturers to determine the characteristics of the lamps they produce. Why aren't all light measuring tools the same? When you use a photometer to measure light, the light intensity information is displayed as a single number representing the light level. The number that's reported can be in a variety of different units, such as Lumens, Lux, Foot-Candles, micro-Einsteins, PAR Watts, etc. Why are there so many different types of numbers, and are they the same thing with different names? No, all of these types of units are very different, and have different meanings. Even though all photometers are, typically, making the same kind of measurement, the photometer is interpreting the information it collects to tell you something very specific. For example, a light meter used for photography adjusts the information by making colors that are more visible to the human eye, such as yellow and green, count more than colors that we don't see well. Obviously a photometer such as this will not give a very useful indication of how good the light is for growing plants. Photometers are made for very specific purposes, for which they are very well suited. Photometers used by photographers provide excellent information about how well the available light is for taking photographs. PAR photometers are extremely useful for determining if the sunlight in a greenhouse is adequate for growing plants. If you use a photometer intended for photography to measure the quality of light in your greenhouse, it will tell you how well your pictures are likely to turn out, but doesn't really say much about whether your plants will grow well. Similarly, your PAR meter will tell you how well your tomatoes will grow, but not how well they'll photograph. Always make sure the tool you select is appropriate for the measurements you are taking. -- CEO SolarOasis (Check next month's issue for comparing measurements of sunlight to those of lamp light.} **************************************************************** Copyright 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LED Grow Master Global, LLC |
| LED grow lights equal electrical efficiency. |
| LED Grow Lights vs 250 Watt HPS |