CFL vs. T5 HO

which is better all around, Ive been doin more research and have not come to anything,, there are CFL's that boast of 11k lumen and are priced so nicely it makes you think twice and the other companies with the high grade phosphors goin for 60$ to 70$. why would you ever buy a 4 or 6 bank t5 with there outrageous prices are they that much better its only 5000 lumen a tube , or should I be looking somewhere else ???
Just really confused can anyone help me out with this one

Because some T5 fictures will hold 8 bulbs - if they're really 5000 lumens a piece, thats 40,000 lumens...that's heaps of light.

The 'Tek-Light T5's seem to be really good and put out a sheet-load of light. They aint cheap though. But it's 1 fixture, 1 reflector, 1 power cord.

To put out anywhere near that with CFLs you'd need tonnes of bulbs, adaptors, reflectors, lamp holders etc. and it starts to get messy and cluttered.

It's gonna be more cost effective to fork out $ now on something better, than to fart around with things and then decide to upgrade.

If heat/ventilation aren't an issue then go with a 150 or a 250w HPS, but if they are, then a good T5 would be better IMO than CFLs.

but I found these CFL's which is the reason for my query
Fluorescent Lighting Retrofit 200 Watt Compact Fluorescent Bulbs ...
and it the lumen output is through the roof ,, I was wondering if this was one of those too good to be true scenarios ? 2 bulbs = 40k lumen

it says they put out 12000 lumens, so 2 of them = 24000..

it all depends on how big your grow space is and how many plants you want to grow - that'll determine how much and of what type light you need.

the problem with using one big light is that all the light energy is concentrated at the top of the plants, you want to (especially during flowering) spread the light around the plant and get one light per bud site.

how many plants are you wanting to grow and what are you growing in?

Plants could care less about lumens. Lumens is not what a plant needs. Lumens are measured how the human eye perceives the light and which our eyes will always adjust to the light on hand to either enhance or degrade how we see light. A plant needs watts and the correct spectrum, not neccessarily lumens. Lumens is just a point of reference for the humans, kinda like time.

My search to find a T5 fixture/reflector begins...

rkm said:

Plants could care less about lumens. Lumens is not what a plant needs. Lumens are measured how the human eye perceives the light and which our eyes will always adjust to the light on hand to either enhance or degrade how we see light. A plant needs watts and the correct spectrum, not neccessarily lumens. Lumens is just a point of reference for the humans, kinda like time.

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so your pretty much my new hero

ii would say tryn get the t5 fixture...if you need some extra light souronding plants the cfl's uve chosen a be more than enuff side lighting...light spectrum,,and lumens are good to take in2 acount tho equally..along with watts someone could xplain bettrer than ii tho when it comes to those subjects

Yh for the price it sucks buy a 125w which is 12000 lumens .

auzzie07 said:

my search to find a t5 fixture/reflector begins...

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try e-bay for t-5, i recently purchased a 4foot 4 bulb h.o. Fixture for about 120 bucks,my plants are doing quite well,have 2 indicas and 2 skunk-thai sativas buds all over the place- good luck...............