hi again guys welcome back to the channel today wharf's going to be
helping me take some power readings with our all new apogee power sensor meter
and we're going to be testing the xs 2000 and p2000 by viparspectra so you guys can find out
the best light height and dimmer setting for your plants in all stages of growth let's get into it
i'm super excited guys we've teamed up with apogee instruments and they sent us a new mq-610 par
meter with the all-new epar sensor and it's pretty exciting for us guys because i love the data and
this will let us be able to make some new kind of content videos and light reviews so we'll be
able to measure our lights in different tents and give you guys par maps and height recommendations
along with the dimmer knob settings so you guys can get the best par information
for the best height and dimmer settings for your plant through various stages of growth
and what's exciting about the apogee instruments new mq-610 meter with the all-new e-par sensor is
that it's built specifically to measure the new lights that are hitting the market today because
more and more lights start to come with chips that within the expanded range past the visible
spectrum in ir and uv this all new meter with the epar sensor allows you to read from 380 nanometers
in the uv up to 750 nanometers in the ir range so that's beyond the visible spectrum so you can
actually start to get accurate par from the new lights hitting the market with expanded wavelength
chips and that's perfect for our lights we're measuring today since the vipar spectra xs 2000
and p2000 both feature ir chips at 730 nanometers previous par meters would not be able to detect
that ir of light because it's beyond the visible spectrum but with the new epar sensor
we can capture that data and get an accurate par from these lights and lights featuring uv chips
as well definitely go check out apogee's youtube channel guys if you're curious there's a lot of
research being done over there on the effects of uv and ir light in photosynthesis and plants and
they're beginning to find a lot of data suggest that the plants are benefiting from ir and uv
chips that's why they're starting to be included in a lot of grow lights and that's why they made
the epar sensors so they could accurately capture the data and get measurements with these lights
featuring these chips because plants are showing benefits in photosynthesis growth and yields
with ir and uv early research suggests that plants benefit more from chips in the ir range so that's
why the meter goes up to 750 nanometers and a little bit less in the uv range that's why it
only goes down to 380 nanometers let's talk a little bit about the setup and how i'll be
measuring these lights so i used the old 2x4 tent that we started off the channel with guys
and i taped off one foot section squares in the bottom of the tent and then i took measurements
from the middle of each one foot square section and then three along the center line i then
recorded the data at three different heights of 24 inches 18 inches and 14 inches above the canopy at
all the main dimmer knob settings 100 75 50 and 25 i've also recorded the watt draw from the wall for
each of these lights at each of the dimmer knob settings so that means when you guys are looking
at these par charts you'll be able to see exactly what the dimmer knob should be and the watt draw
along with the height to get that appropriate par so if you have a cheap
watt meter off amazon i've linked the one i used down below in the description if
you guys are interested you don't need the par meter to get the accurate results you can just
dial your light to that watts in that height and that's the part you'll be getting on your canopy
that'll answer all the questions that we get about what light height should it be what dimming knob
setting should i have it on for what stage so this literally will answer all those questions
when you look at the par chart if you're running these lights but we'll definitely be doing more
videos guys on our xs 4000 and p4000 with similar setups so you guys can get a good idea on height
watt and output for those lights and other lights we review in the future so if you guys have a
light you want us to check out definitely comment down below and we'll see if we can get our hands
on one and do a similar type video so you guys can have the information to help you throughout your
grow without further ado let's take a look at the xs 2000 and how it performed in the 2x4 taking a
look at the chart here in the top right you can see the key with the dimmer slash watt position
uh so we cover 100 75 50 and 25 in the dimmer knob along with the actual watt draw measured
by a meter at the wall for the xs 2000 below that you can see a stage slash par key that shows you
the approximate par you should have for what stage your plant is in either seedling veg or bloom
and then looking at the main tent that represents a full two by four tent with a single light hung
in the middle so if you have a two by two or a three by three you wanna be looking more at the
center of the chart whereas if you have a full two by four and you plan on using one of these
single lights in there you can get an accurate map for the whole tent with a single light so
if you're running an xs 2000 in a 2x4 2x2 or 3x3 this is going to give you some great info on how
much par you're going to be putting down at what dimmer position so all you would need is a really
cheap watt meter and match the watts shown on this chart and the hang height and it's going to give
you that equivalent par within your tent so for example if you had a 2x4 with the xs 2000 full of
seedlings and you wanted to know the best dimmer position you would probably want to select 50 at
24 inches height and 88 watts on your watt meter would give you a great power coverage for the
entire tent for plants and seedling or if you're in veg you'd probably want to turn it up to 75
165 watts on your meter and that would provide great coverage for all the plants in veg stage
inside your 2x4 2x2 or 3x3 one thing that's good to know is in those smaller tents two by two three
by three these par numbers might spike slightly due to the walls and the reflection being moved
in tighter in a closed area so that can make the numbers increase so always read your plants judge
what they're telling you and adjust from there but these should be some great starting values for you
take a look at the entire chart where you can see 24 inches 18 inches and 14 inches above canopy
and the corresponding dimmer switch setting and want draw from the wall this should give you guys
some great information for whatever stage your plants are in and what position and dimmer knob
setting the light should be at and looking at the chart you can get some useful information
depending on how you grow let's say you were growing autos in a 2x4 with a single xs 2000
at 18 inches and 100 you could flower two autos in the middle of that tent while having two vegging
on the left or right side and they would be perfectly fine out in that zone because the
par is not high enough to hurt them or if you're growing photos in a 2x4 and you're wondering
what's the proper height to bloom out the whole tent and provide even coverage you could probably
see by looking at this chart that you would want at least two xs 2000s to be available to provide
even par coverage for plants in bloom or if you're running a 2x2 and 3x3 you can see that this single
light will provide more enough coverage for any stage of your plant within the whole town
and here's the results for the same setup with the vipar spectra p2000 so those of you running
a p2000 take a look at these numbers these should help you get some ideas on height and dimmer
setting along with the wattage in the top corner there because the p2000 does use a lower power
driver that maxes out at 200 watts i measured 209 with mine at 100 um this is going to give you guys
some great information on height and dimmer knob setting for whatever stage your flowers are in
leave some comments below guys let us know what you think let us know what lights you'd like to
see tested in the future and if you thought this was useful at all or not be sure to check out our
youtube channel members for all kinds of cool behind-the-scenes content and also on instagram
where i'm going to post these individually charts so if you guys want to check them out there too
follow us on instagram for the behind the scenes and all the fun stuff join the channel
members to help support our content and what we do here we'll see you guys in the next one