The cheap Chinese lux meter

[Al B. Fuct]

Found this lux meter in the discontinued/blowout bin at Bunnings. Marked down to $20 from $40 from $godknowshat.

 

 

Lux is the SI unit for luminous intensity spread over a given area. 1 lumen spread over 1 square metre is 1 lux.

 

The meter's instructions say that it measures 0-50,000 lux. This range is again specified on the switchplate of the meter.

 

 

However, the LCD can display 0-1999 and there are three ranges, x1, x10 and x100. If you believe the LCD and multiplier, the unit should be able to measure up to 199,900 lux. Maybe it's just overloaded past 50K lux. Dunno. The instructions unfortunately are written in Chinglish.

 

Now, wot clever soul can convert lux into foot-candles so this chart makes some sense with this meter?

 

 

I've made some good use of the meter as a tool for comparison, not relying on it for any absolute reading. It caught some dodgy HPS tubes for me, justifying its $20 cost a few (million ) times over... but I'd like to know better how to use it.

 

I've had a play measuring the light radiation patterns from different CFL lights (straight tube vs spiral, max radiation angles, etc) and will be using the meter to test the effectiveness of some CFL reflectors I'm going to MacGuyver up for my clonebox.

[Al B. Fuct]

aha... here's a light measurement unit conversion reference.