"Illuminate" this for me please?

[zacharytrimble]

Everybody raves about T-5's, which I don't have a problem with at all...I'm just trying to answer my own question.....why are they supposed to be so much better? I know they're skinny, but it seems like they are usually 55 watts max....so it seems you would have to cram a bunch of them in there to do the job. For instance....I'm thinking of buying a pc setup that has 2 130 watt bulbs....so why would t-5's be better? Do they actually produce more PAR per watt or something? I'm sure they have all color spectrums...but so does vho...and pc has 10,000k and 12,000k now...so Somebody enlighten me.

[RichConley]

Because PCs produce around 60 lumens per watt. VHOs produce around 40-50 lumens per watt. T5HO produces 120+ lumens/watt.

So basically,

65w PC = 3900 lumens
54w T5 = 5400 lumens
110w VHO=5000 lumens


THats just base output. The fact that T5s are so narrow makes them easier to reflect. So you get 95%+ of the light from a T5, whereas you may get 70 percent from a VHO, and 50 percent from a PC lamp, making it
65w PC = 1950 lumens
54w T5 = 5130 lumens
110w VHO = 3500 lumens

[Rhodesholar]

Originally posted by RichConley
Because PCs produce around 60 lumens per watt. VHOs produce around 40-50 lumens per watt. T5HO produces 120+ lumens/watt.

So basically,

65w PC = 3900 lumens
54w T5 = 5400 lumens
110w VHO=5000 lumens


THats just base output. The fact that T5s are so narrow makes them easier to reflect. So you get 95%+ of the light from a T5, whereas you may get 70 percent from a VHO, and 50 percent from a PC lamp, making it
65w PC = 1950 lumens
54w T5 = 5130 lumens
110w VHO = 3500 lumens

What Rich said. Plust the bulbs are reasonably priced, you can overdrive them and mix and match to get the exact coloration/spectrum for personal taste/need.

[zacharytrimble]

Thanks so much...that's so helpful...by the way....do you have any references for that material? Not questioning it so much as just wanting to read more about it.

THanks,
Zach