T-5 fluorescent

Has anyone had experience with the T5 FLUORESCENT GROW LIGHTS
- the 8 tube high intensity is suppose to be more efficient than a 400watt HPS & better that LED since the LED is still experimental not fully tested
-- at least that's what the salesgirl said.

Please tell me of your experiences.

I love the 40000 lumen t5 . full spectrum lights is what you want. a few inches away from the top of the plant.

I have used a few of them, results are in my journals. VV

I am using a 210watt 4-bulb T5 and am having great results by them...not very hot and can be kept real close to the plant without burning them....



Doug

What about yield with T-5? v. HID?
Hey, I sent Peakseeds cash & after 3 weeks they will not even e-mail me back to amswer whether or not they got my latter with cash - anyone else?

I have posted up a few things about this; I will recap my experience.

I started with an 8 lamp t5 floro as my only light. I used it from seedlings to harvest once, and the yield was horrible but it could have been the lack of good genetics from using bag seed. I started that grow with 8 6500k tubes and switched to 4 and 4 of the 66.5 and 3k tubes for bloom.

The next time, I got to the third day of flowering and then got my long backordered 400 hps. I instantly fell in love with this thing from the second the orange glow was first seen. Compared to the floro with any tubes, this thing is like the sun (the hps) vs. literally the back of a star destroyer (actually what the floro color reminds me of) The flowers started growing noticeably every twelve hours, and the final appearance of the plants was just beautiful.

The other difference I noticed is, the cost of cooling and lighting my room has gone down significantly with the hps in it instead of the floro. I have a 6 inch can fan that pulls room air through a filter and then through the light and exhausts it out. I have a passive cold air intake at the upper opposite end of the room that air flows into the room to. The temp stays at 70, and needs a heater in there at night sometimes even.

With the t5 running, I had to run a 5000 btu ac to keep things cool in the fall in this room. I ran this til the day I had the 400 in there and the 400 was running 70-74 with the air cooling only as opposed to the t5 with ac staying at 77. SO the heat from the t5 is a lot and it just rises in your space.

edit: Forgot to mention, I did find a great use for the t5. I have 6 6500's in it and 2 3k's and I use it in an outdoor cabinet for starting my winter vegetables for the greenhouse. I insulated the closet with r5 sheet insulation and put this in there and a warmer under my cloner. It stays perfect temp for all of my seedlings until they just won't fit in the closet anymore.

I agree with the above post. I started out with only four 54w with my ballasts mounted remotely. Due to there not being a genuine flow through t5ho setup like a cooltube, the heat rises and must be dealt with. Unless height is a major concern, get an HID as you can more effctively vent heat away.