T5 vs. HPS

From the standpoint of someone who has used both. T5 does not produce the lumens nor pentration of HPS. You get more watts per amp out of a T5 but less efficient light. I use a happy medium. I use a SCROG deep water culture setup with T5 fixtures. This way even though I'm not getting as many lumens, I'm making the best use of what I'm getting by scrogging and lowering lights. Not too close though or you lose the footprint. If they are too close the canopy between the fixtures suffers. This is particularly true if you're using multiple T5 fixtures. I find that 4-5" works well. I also use 240v for my T5s for lower amp consumption. If you're only using 1 or 2 lights this difference is negligible. I won't get the yield of you HPS growers, but my grow is very efficient for the small space I have and skinny wallet. I get between .5 and .75 g/watt so I'm happy. I grow for myself and patients in Colorado and competition here is fierce so keeping costs down is crucial.

Gary Jarcia said:

From the standpoint of someone who has used both. T5 does not produce the lumens nor pentration of HPS. You get more watts per amp out of a T5 but less efficient light. I use a happy medium. I use a SCROG deep water culture setup with T5 fixtures. This way even though I'm not getting as many lumens, I'm making the best use of what I'm getting by scrogging and lowering lights. Not too close though or you lose the footprint. If they are too close the canopy between the fixtures suffers. This is particularly true if you're using multiple T5 fixtures. I find that 4-5" works well. I also use 240v for my T5s for lower amp consumption. If you're only using 1 or 2 lights this difference is negligible. I won't get the yield of you HPS growers, but my grow is very efficient for the small space I have and skinny wallet. I get between .5 and .75 g/watt so I'm happy. I grow for myself and patients in Colorado and competition here is fierce so keeping costs down is crucial.

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i'm confused, do you mean more lumens per watt? More watts per amp? How does that work? Do you mean less wasted electricity? Considering the ballast on a HID always takes more than a T5. More electricity loss to BTUs on a HID?

Watts is output, not input, so it's not an accurate measurement of power consumption. Amps is how much the unit uses, not how much it puts out. Forget lumens. You will never get as many lumens per watt than you will from a HPS light. What you will get is more watts of output per kilowatt hour. The other thing to consider is bulb life. HPS bulbs lose considerable strength over time. Not so with T5. They lose very little strenghth between life & death. Let's be real too, any HPS bulb under S100 is pretty much crap. In a bag, HPS will get you bigger yields but at a higher cost. It's all about efficiency. As I said I get about .65g/watt on average. The commercial growers here (indoor anyway) go for 1g/watt. I go by 2 rules.

1. Watts=weight.
2. More root, more fruit

Definitely a much bigger yield with the HPS bulbs. I grew with flouros/cfls for quite a while, and it does have its pros like cheap on the electric bill, low heat, low cost if you don't buy the ones specifically for growing. You can use single cfl bulbs to spot light and get some nice looking nugs. I never ended up getting very much on the bottom half of the plant and the nugs are much smaller and less dense, but hey its a good way to learn the basics if nothing else and its cheap.

I've been using CFLs/flouros this whole past grow while I get ready to build my new room in my new house. I ran 1 6-bulb t5 fixture for 3 plants with some spot lighting, just some clones that were almost dead so I didn't care much about them. Never gave them nutes or anything, just some quality soil and water. Bought the light fixture at home depot, it was nothing special just held a lot of 4ft lights. They grew to be about 6-7ft tall and I yielded 92g dry. Unfortunately I didnt take any pics while they were growing but I'll take some right now. They have been in the jar for about a week, still could probably use a final trim too. Didn't get much but the stuff I did get is very smooth and has a strong purple taste, with some pretty nice and unexpected expando. The clones were taken from an F1 grandaddy purp mother seeded from Nirvana, so I expect the strain has a lot to do with the result. Theres just something to the taste of organic soil grows ya know?

Edit: I'm with Gary. If your doing flouros train them plants so you can light the bud sites.

jake55 said:

My friend showed me some plants that he was growing under the T5s and the buds looked just as good as the ones i grow under my 1000 hps.

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I'd have to see that to believe it. Not that I'm calling you a liar. But it's very, very difficult to believe that T5s can compete with HPS for flowering.

I veg with T5s just fine. But I flower with HPS.

I agree with rifleman on this. While some decent bud can be grown under T5 lighting, it would be very difficult to reproduce the bud size of HPS. Look at it this way. T5 is like someone knocking asking if the plant would like some light. HPS on the other hand is someone with a battering ram knocking the door down and forcing the light in, and penetrating the foliage well below the canopy. I use the SCROG plan because my T5 lights aren't going to penetrate very far anyway, so I concentrate on maximizing the foliage that does get light. Remember that these plants are like strippers. The worse you treat them the more they try to please you.A good part of the reason I decided on T5 was heat. My flower area is only 5X7 and vemtilation is nominal at best.

DON’T Do The Following:

RULE NUMBER 1
Don’t use electrical watts to compare grow lights

RULE NUMBER 2
Don’t use Lumens to compare grow lights

RULE NUMBER 3
Don’t be fooled by a company that claims to have a magical growth spectrum

RULE NUMBER 4
Don’t just look at a single PAR (PPFD) measurement directly under the fixture

RULE NUMBER 5
Don't focus on the wattage of the LED used in the fixture (1W, 3W, 5W, etc.)

In general, if you see a company using any of the above items to promote their horticulture lights, run away and don’t look back. Neither of these metrics, nor their derivatives, tell you anything about the performance of a horticulture lighting system. There is no "right" way to do this. There are a bozillion combinations possible. You have to find the right one for your budget, goals and setup. My recommendation if you can afford the electric bill and get rid of the heat, go HPS. Otherwise T5 is your best option.

Gary Jarcia said:

Watts is output, not input, so it's not an accurate measurement of power consumption. Amps is how much the unit uses, not how much it puts out. Forget lumens. You will never get as many lumens per watt than you will from a HPS light. What you will get is more watts of output per kilowatt hour. The other thing to consider is bulb life. HPS bulbs lose considerable strength over time. Not so with T5. They lose very little strenghth between life & death. Let's be real too, any HPS bulb under S100 is pretty much crap. In a bag, HPS will get you bigger yields but at a higher cost. It's all about efficiency. As I said I get about .65g/watt on average. The commercial growers here (indoor anyway) go for 1g/watt. I go by 2 rules.

1. Watts=weight.
2. More root, more fruit

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Not purposely trying to single anyone out, but its obvious you have no idea what your talking about. Please don't spread misinformation.

- Jiji

Gary Jarcia said:

Watts is output, not input, so it's not an accurate measurement of power consumption. Amps is how much the unit uses, not how much it puts out. Forget lumens. You will never get as many lumens per watt than you will from a HPS light. What you will get is more watts of output per kilowatt hour. The other thing to consider is bulb life. HPS bulbs lose considerable strength over time. Not so with T5. They lose very little strenghth between life & death. Let's be real too, any HPS bulb under S100 is pretty much crap. In a bag, HPS will get you bigger yields but at a higher cost. It's all about efficiency. As I said I get about .65g/watt on average. The commercial growers here (indoor anyway) go for 1g/watt. I go by 2 rules.

1. Watts=weight.
2. More root, more fruit

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Is it two rules? Or 5? Or 7 im confused...and dont go telling me there are more rules....

Ok so I guess you know more than a master electrician for Ford form38 years (my father in law). Congratulations on being all-knowing. My work here is done.

Gary Jarcia said:

Ok so I guess you know more than a master electrician for Ford form38 years (my father in law). Congratulations on being all-knowing. My work here is done.

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If he said that, then Fuck yeah I do.

- Jiji

When did 38 years of someone elses experience in the automotive industry all the sudden make you an expert in horticulture? Stick around though....its worth it.

ELECTRICIAN. It's about efficiency. I will never dipsute the fa c t that HPS will produce more. All these old schoolers just refuse to admit that HPS has distinct disadvantages and admit that t5 is the most EFFICIENT option. Every grow situation is different there is no right way to do this we all know that. it comes down to the fact that some of us are spenders and some of us are thinkers.

Please get back to me

40ozSkunk said:

hps will no doubt yield more. if you wanna see how 4 plants flowered under t5s, check the link in my sig. i just put them under hps two days ago (getting my tent ready for the new and improved round 2). These plants were vegged under 6500k lamps and flowered with half 6500, half 3000k, plus a few 3000k cfls. The buds are small and airy looking, and forget about having any buds worth keeping underneath the canopy. all the lower buds are tiny little specks.

I'm looking forward to my next grow, where i veg with the t5s and flower with the hps. Then i will truly be able to tell the difference in hps vs t5 yields.

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on thia