T5 fluorescent Light good enough?

I've been searching and reading and just recently came across T5 fluorescent light. they have 80 watt lights that produce 7000 lumens and are in the red spectrum 3000K and in the blue spectrum 6500K.

What i was wondering is this less or more cost effective than a HPS or MH lamp? I know its cheaper but the bulbs wont last as long.

Also will the plants not veg as fast or as good?; same with the flowering and bud production?

I'm planning all this out for my first setup, I'm going with a 6 plant aerogarden.

I wouldnt use them for flowering. Just get an hps bro, a 400w can be had for 120 all ready to go and puts out 50,000(or 55,000 if you opt for a high powered bulb. Your growth rate will be much much better with the hps, the thing w/flouros is you gotta use a ton of them for it to really be worth it. a 400w hps puts out 125 lumens a watt(or 137.5 w/ high output bulb(i think its worth it, only like $4 more.)t5 is 87.5 a watt. this light here is great, i highly recommend it, with the high output bulb like i said before, ive got the euro reflector too and if you can i would get it too.
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=47929

Thanks dark that was a nice post. Even had the url to click on. Seem kinda complicated tho for nubie on 2nd grow. I bookmarked everything tho. I'll be flowering with 12 CFLs not realy to simple either. I wont get 50000 Lumens thats for sure. Will see how money goes.
Thanks, growace

I have 6 females of different quality under t5's with some cfl side. For sure there a yeild to bulb type ratio but if your just wanting to grow cheap with little issues t5 are cool. Here's some pics I posted.

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/351961-i-owe-all-yall.html

I think I could do a whole lot better with better room setup, starting the seeds all together instead of 4 batches. I never worry about heat. I like my t5's. May upgrade someday but for my first couple grows I think T5s will do.

iam running a '4ft 6bulb T5HO setup' from Hydrofarm and it has been kicking ass (see journals)< but its pretty key that you keep plant number down for them, as their penetration is less than ideal.

now i wont lie, a HID light of just about any sort will work better in the end than any fluoro but like anything, its quite dependent on the grower. I went with T5HO for a few reasons:
1. Heat. It gets quite hot in my area during the summer, and its hard even with the T5's to keep temps under 90 at night. In fact once summer hit, the temperature change between day and night went from about 12-18 degrees to about 5. If i were running an HID my temps at this point would be out of control. That switch wont be feasible til i can afford a better room.
2. Energy. Again, as financial issues have kept me from investing properly just yet in any sort of room or heat control, i also needed something that uses less juice. At 324W and 2.7Amps, this thing barely has an effect on my bill, is low enough amperage to plug into just about ANY cheap timer, and in a few ways less of a fire hazard for my cheap setup.

Now i have been having great results with my setup, but i have no experience with HID's yet. Since i believe its more in the growers hands than the lights (at least to a point), iam sure my yields will go up when i go to HID but i would say this is due to the light itself. More like, with the better penetration and added intensity, i will be able to LST a little less, and fit more plants in (right now i only do 3 plants at a time under them). I think my plan this time is to make the upgrade to the 2700k bulbs for flower, since this run iam using the stock 6700k it came with. Im hoping this will prove some good experimentation, and also delay the hotter light until i hopefully move.

I know long and kinda winded, but I hope it provided ya with somethin.