Poorly maintained, under-performing, or uncalibrated lab equipment will waste resources, time, and human resources. In many laboratories, a device reporting inconsistent, inaccurate, or out of specification results can have devastating consequences.

Boasting an accurate and fast sample rate of 1.5 seconds, the IC1584LM can store minimum and maximum values for easy comparisons.

speed of light, speed at which light waves propagate through different materials. In particular, the value for the speed of light in a vacuum is now defined as exactly 299,792,458 metres per second.

Difficulties emerge where standard meters cannot measure light accurately outside of this curve. Measuring light emitted from LED lights is an example of such a problem.

See the comparison of the three graphs below. There is a spectrum of typical eye sensitivity and intensity of incandescent bulbs and LED bulbs.

It is vital that if you intend to measure LED light, you use a light meter that is capable of doing so. Standard light meters are not designed to measure the light spectrum that LED lights emit. To avoid errors and confusion with results when measuring LED lights, ensure you are using the right meter for the job.

LED light meters are designed to overcome the issue of erroneous results by using specific algorithmic calculations to measure the LED light spectrum, which may not necessarily fall within the CIE Photopic curve. A light meter can check LED lights to ensure they fall into the desired range to have minimal disruption to your life.

Note: Even with ‘warmer’ style LED lights – don’t be fooled they don’t emit a red wavelength. The red and orange hues come from masking the blue light with high amounts of orange and yellow. Some warmer style LED emit less blue light than others, but there is no indication of this on the LED packaging. The only way to check this is through a light meter.

Food safety is extremely important in the home and workplace. Unsafe food can create serious illness, and at worst, is a matter of life or death. What role can fridge thermometers play to reduce the risk of food spoilage and foodborne illness?

Listed below are some examples of light meters that are built to measure LED light, available at Instrument Choice. The examples below have differing specifications and are at different price points to suit all budgets and needs.

The first interesting point to note is the high amount of invisible light emitted as heat around 650nm on the incandescent bulb. That’s essentially money burning in wasted energy, which has led to the widespread use of the LED light.

This article provides valuable tips on how best to keep your lab equipment performing reliably and accurately, including the calibration, maintenance, and replacement of devices – and, in doing so, you will follow good laboratory practice.

This article will explain how LED light meters differ from standard light meters and why it is essential to have the right meter for the job.

The speed of light is considered a fundamental constant of nature. Its significance is far broader than its role in describing a property of electromagnetic waves. It serves as the single limiting velocity in the universe, being an upper bound to the propagation speed of signals and to the speeds of all material particles. In the famous relativity equation, E = mc2, the speed of light (c) serves as a constant of proportionality, linking the formerly disparate concepts of mass (m) and energy (E).

Standard light meters are calibrated to match the response of the human eye to light, defined by the CIE photopic curve (see Table 1 below). A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 380 – 740 nanometers (nm).

Unsure if your light meter can measure LED light, need help finding a light meter to suit your application or want more information on any of the above products? Contact one of the Instrument Choice Scientists. We’re here to help!

See table 3, an excellent example of a warmer style LED light; this falls in line with the human eye sensitivity chart and does not have the high blue energy spike shown by the cool white LED.

Table 2 Wavelength and Intensity charts of visible light to the human eye and light emitted from cool white and Incandescent light sources.

Standard and LED light meters are used to measure illuminance. Illuminance results will appear in a light meter display as either Lux or Footcandles. Lux and Footcandles measure the same thing. The difference is that the footcandle is an imperial measure, while lux is metric. Lux is the widely-used term used in Australia.

Some meters can even go one step further and break up the LED spectrum and provide results for blue, green, purple, yellow or red wavelengths.

This LED Light meter is excellent for monitoring and optimising light levels in a wide range of applications.The LT45 measures both white and colour LED lights, and it also can store or recall up to 99 data point records.

However, with the cool white LED light you can see a significant amount of visible light as well as a high energy spike in the blue spectrum between 400-500nm. Comparing this spike in cool LED light with the human eye sensitivity graph that standard light meters use, it’s easy to understand where the measurement errors can occur.

Did you know that a standard light meter may not be capable of measuring LED light? If you have previously used a standard light meter to measure LED light, chances are you have collected inaccurate or inconsistent results.

One key point is health. Studies are coming out in regards to blue light and its potential impact on health. Being exposed to blue light sources in the afternoon and evening may suppress the secretion of melatonin, shift your circadian rhythm and can result in adverse health effects associated with poor sleep.

Table 3 Wavelength of a warm white LED light. The warm white LED lines up with the human eye sensitivity chart in table 2.