Cheap light meter

Hi all!

I was wondering if this light meter would be sufficient, anyone tried it?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//350969184381

Thanks.
W:

Sufficient for what?

sorry, taking light readings in a grow area

Unless you are buying one so as to compare things like different bulbs, ballasts, reflectors, LEDs, then there is absolutely no point buying one.

If you have an ipad I know there are light meter apps. I paid about $1 for mine just to do some relative difference measurements. No idea how accurate they are. Imagine smart phone apps exist as well.

I made a light meter from a photo resistor and an ohms meter. It took a while but I got the hang of what it was saying about the lightbulb being tested. The resistor had to be an exact distance from the light or source to mean anything.
I did this in the day that people were buying their brand new 286 computer systems
Interesting little gizmo you're advertising though. And cheap enough.

Yes i want to check between DIY LED and CFL lamps.
I thought it was pretty cheap too.
Does it just measure in Lumens, is that basically what it does?
What ipad version is that? I have iphone4 didnt know it had a light sensor in it.. Found a free app called LightMeter by Whitegoods

The app I bought is called Light Meter HD. It measures in units labeled 'lux'. Not sure if this relates to lumens.

Unfortunately it would cost thousands for an accurate spectroradiometer to make comparisons of light sources that have different spectra. Although you may be able to rent one. The reason is because cheap light meters are not equally sensitive to all frequencies of light. Most cheap light meters can't even see deep red for example. So the only thing they are useful for is checking to see how much your bulbs have faded over time, or to check to see how even your lighting is in the canopy.

I see, so it wouldnt tell me much between led or cfl then. ok thanks