The most accurate way of measuring a light’s plant growing capabilities is the
microEinstien, which is able to measure how many photons of photo synthetically active
radiation strike an area per second. This information doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, or even
register to many. If this is you, feel free to skip ahead to the last paragraph. Carl Sagan made
an interesting point when he said ” We live in a society exquisitely dependant on science and
technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
This is evident in the number of people who fill our inbox wanting lumen comparisons for
our led grow lights. We’re talking measuring light in relation to a candle’s flame. Not only is this
an old-school standard, it does not apply to led grow lights at all. Let’s look at the definition of
lumen. The unit of luminous flux, (energy within the range of frequencies we perceive as light)
given out through a solid angle by a source of one candela intensity radiating equally in all
directions. This measurement is relative to the human eye. The interesting thing is that the
colors that plants use fall within a spectrum that is barely visible to the human eye. The colors
that we equate with room lighting are those that plants do not need. The second part of the
definition states that the light is radiating equally in all directions. By measuring the lumen
output of a plant light you could measure the overall luminous flux being radiated but not the
amount of light that is reaching your plants. The LED Grow Master lighting incorporates a
reflector in each diode that ensures light is focused on your plant and not scattered around the
room.
Generally I prefer to explain it like this… What is now called an inch was originally the width of a
man’s thumb. The word carat comes from the weight standard for precious metals of the olden
days- the carob bean. We promise not to send you bar measurements in thumb widths, or the
weight in carob bean. Along these same lines, we do not measure our output in lumens. LED
Grow Master understands the need for, and beauty, of accurate measurement.