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Amount of energy received (482 W/m^2 in 400 - 800nm)

A project log for Artificial plant sunlight (obsolete)

A development of a low cost, high efficiency LED growing lightning that will meet the needs of the plant.

domenDomen 07/17/2016 at 08:450 Comments

All quotes are from wikipedia: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sunlight

Sunlight takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth from the surface of the Sun
The total amount of energy received at ground level from the Sun at the zenith depends on the distance to the Sun and thus on the time of year. It is about 3.3% higher than average in January and 3.3% lower in July (see below).
If the extraterrestrial solar radiation is 1367 watts per square meter (the value when the Earth–Sun distance is 1 astronomical unit), then the direct sunlight at Earth's surface when the Sun is at the zenith is about 1050 W/m2, but the total amount (direct and indirect from the atmosphere) hitting the ground is around 1120 W/m2.[3]

In terms of energy, sunlight at Earth's surface is around 52 to 55 percent infrared (above 700 nm), 42 to 43 percent visible (400 to 700 nm), and 3 to 5 percent ultraviolet (below 400 nm)

So the visible light energy that is hitting the Earth is ~482W/m^2 (1120*0.43).

Direct sunlight has a luminous efficacy of about 93 lumens per watt of radiant flux. This is higher than the efficacy (of source) of most artificial lighting (including fluorescent), which means using sunlight for illumination heats up a room less than using most forms of artificial lighting.


Maybe I should also build a device to measure the photosynthesis of the plant.

Photosynthesis measurement systems are not designed to directly measure the amount of light absorbed by the leaf. But analysis of chlorophyll-fluorescence, P700- and P515-absorbance and gas exchange measurements reveal detailed information about e.g. the photosystems, quantum efficiency and the CO2 assimilation rates. With some instruments even wavelength-dependency of the photosynthetic efficiency can be analyzed.[36]

Source: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Photosynthesis

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