light and moisture meter reduce to clear £3 at garden centre pucker ya ready cant go wrong at that price, cheap to feed too no batteries. Ok its only a needle meter measuring 1-10 so ya dont know the lux value as such but still handy for checking the strength and finding low or dead spots. I dont need it but the moisture side of it would be handy for a beginner i'd say.
Finding the rite time to change your bulbs. Your not gonna believe this but been thinking. No on/off switch the meter its self is always on so i can leave it in a spot thats easily seen fairly close too the lights and wont get shaded or over grown, mark the reading on the meter with a pen and working out whats a 10 per cent drop in strength would be on the meter and marking that. Your bound to see it once a week if only by pure chance.