Actual power out of uvb bulbs

Agromax goes down to at least 270nm and has a greater relative UVB portion than Solacure. It's hard to tell by the graphs they give because I haven't seen an Agromax graph with tick marks to signify the exact placement the X-axis position label is supposed to indicate, but it looks like the low bound is somewhere between 260nm - 270nm.

Attached is a digitized Agromax Pure UV SPD, the points chosen for reference placed the peak WV of the digitized spectrum at 310nm, so +/- what the actual peak WV is, will be +/- of what the actual lower bound is, currently it's right around ~269nm..

When the spectra was shifted so that the peak was 301nm (instead of 310nm), the UVB:UVA ratio widened to ~70/30, compared to only ~60/40 when the peak is at 310nm...

Both will trail lower than their max peak output

Agromax says they go to 290nm, and their output is generated around 305+nm.

Solacure peaks at much lower 280nm-290nm

Solacure is also T12

Agromax is T5, which has way less surface area. Solacure can be run at 100w. Come on man, this bulb can run 100w. It will burn anything completely up if left on to long. These are also made for Greenhouses, and run 100 watts.

W vs W nothing is in the same league as this bulb.

Solacure has a built-in reflector.

Anything that reflects back is way inefficient. UVA.B cannot be reflected back via standard T5 fluro fixture. So is way more inefficient, not again to mention the T12 bulb is physically larger/bigger around.

Solacure has been doin UVA/B since 1985. The longest of any manufacturer. They also make UVA/B for agin wood, and show pigs. Not just plants.

Department of Energy uses Solacure.

jimihendrix1 said:

Agromax says they go to 290nm

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Hmmm.. I've never seen that. Their spectrum shows lower. I wouldn't buy the Agromax pure UV's thinking that you're buying a more mild option to a solacure. I think @Randomblame was barely able to use 1 Agromax bulb per 4×4, and for approx 3 durations of only 20min each, or something similar. I think the Agromax pure UV's have too much UVC for growing, and not recommended for that reason.

The Agromax is not nearly as powerful as the Solacure. Nowhere near. T12 outperforms a T5 anyday of the week. Its BIGGER, and way more Surface Area.

Add in the Solacure can run 100 watts.

They have built both T5, and T8, and do make T8.



Why don't you make T5 lamps, the really skinny 4 foot lamps? (F54T5)
They don't work to our standards. We've prototyped them using two different engineering teams and built them at two different factories: they simply don't measure up due to the limits of the lamp size. This doesn't mean we never will, but our current lamps are 20 to 50 times stronger than the prototypes. It is a matter of physics, not effort or experience. The skinny lamps are fine for general lighting but creating UVB requires much higher energy levels and surface area on the lamp. In short, T12s glass works much, much better, so that is what we will use. Quality, power, spectrum and results is what we are focused on. We aren't so focused on how pretty the lamp is.

Final note
Flower Power bulbs are designed to run at 21 watts, or up to 100 watts. You decide based on your needs. Nothing has a better spectrum. Nothing has a fraction of the output from 280nm-300nm, the most critical area for triggering the UVR8 protein. Nothing can touch them for total power (not even close), plus they last at least twice as long as a standard lamp. They are the world's first dedicated horticulture bulb, a 4th generation design that had cannabis cultivation first and foremost in mind when we engineered it.


What is the difference between T5, T8 and T12 lamps?

jimihendrix1 said:

The Agromax is not nearly as powerful as the Solacure. Nowhere near. T12 outperforms a T5 anyday of the week. Its BIGGER, and way more Surface Area.

Add in the Solacure can run 100 watts.

They have built both T5, and T8, and do make T8.



Why don't you make T5 lamps, the really skinny 4 foot lamps? (F54T5)
They don't work to our standards. We've prototyped them using two different engineering teams and built them at two different factories: they simply don't measure up due to the limits of the lamp size. This doesn't mean we never will, but our current lamps are 20 to 50 times stronger than the prototypes. It is a matter of physics, not effort or experience. The skinny lamps are fine for general lighting but creating UVB requires much higher energy levels and surface area on the lamp. In short, T12s glass works much, much better, so that is what we will use. Quality, power, spectrum and results is what we are focused on. We aren't so focused on how pretty the lamp is.

Final note
Flower Power bulbs are designed to run at 21 watts, or up to 100 watts. You decide based on your needs. Nothing has a better spectrum. Nothing has a fraction of the output from 280nm-300nm, the most critical area for triggering the UVR8 protein. Nothing can touch them for total power (not even close), plus they last at least twice as long as a standard lamp. They are the world's first dedicated horticulture bulb, a 4th generation design that had cannabis cultivation first and foremost in mind when we engineered it.


What is the difference between T5, T8 and T12 lamps?

Click to expand...

I recently had a long conversation with a gentleman who bought a pair of your lamps and has experienced consistent, solid results with them. I saw his setup; he used LED floodlights and everything else was straightforward. Others I've spoken with have purchased AgroMax lamps and experienced disappointing results. This is anecdotal, secondhand and I did not see any setups with the AgroMax lamps.

You've stated here that the Solacure lamps run anywhere between 20W up to 100W. Do the fixtures you sell offer variable output to take advantage of this capability? Could you recommend any that do? Am I making a mistake by thinking I might be able to gain a bit more useful life from a given lamp by increasing its output over time?

I appreciate your expertise; UV supplementation is far from standardised.

The same grower who was using your lighting also recommended hardening off the plants to UV light before bloom. What are your thoughts on this?

Finally, safety issues; I live in Colorado, where outdoor UV exposure is very high in the summer due to altitude and low humidity. My elderly family members have gotten macular degeneration, said to come from life long exposure to UV light. I wear sunglasses with religious fervor outdoors in an effort to preserve what limited eyesight I have left! What are your recommendations for safety around your lamps and indoor UV lighting in general?

So the Agromax PureUV are run in T5HO fixtures so they are taking in 56W and putting out photons based on the efficiency. Unless the flower power bulbs have twice the efficiency they can't be more powerful unless the spectrums are narrower, which based on information from Solacure and Agromax, seems to indicate the PureUV bulbs have the narrower spectrum.

I've read many posts of people running no more than 15min per hour 3 to 4 times per day with Agromax at ~30in from canopy and that being the limit before burning plants and this is after UV hardening. Agromax recommends 3ft distance. Nobody has claimed they can go closer than 2ft w/ PureUV. This is why I believed either Agromax PureUV is stronger (T5HO ballasts input more power) and/or the PureUV bulbs pass more UVc than Solacure Flower Power. That's why I asked for test data comparing the two to corroborate your statements that Flower Power is stronger and goes shorter wavelengths which forum searches and reviews would contradict these statements. Is there data out there??? Seems that if you state Flower Power is higher power, shorter wavelength and a direct competitor to PureUV there would be testing data to bolster these claims.

Also, how would one benefit increasing Flower Power lamp power? Would you be recommending ballast changes? How would a power increase change the spectral output?

Edit: I found another thread here that goes into great details. Gonna stick with Flower Power lamps for now since I have T8 fixtures. Still interested in learning how to increase power to the FP lamps^^. Sounds like the consensus is the Agromax PureUV lamp has too much UVb and not enough UVa, e.g. wrong ratio UVb: UVa = 3:1 vs the more natural 1:4 to 1:20 (depending on where you're at in the world). Sounds like there are other bulbs available such as Arcadia 12% or Arcadia 14% lamps that are similar but T5 standard. See the following thread for discussion, it's pretty good: https://www.rollitup.org/t/uv-suppliment-lighting.987316

Here's a YouTube video of a few different UV light comparisons with spectrum output I found as well: