hps vs T5

would it be better to use a T5 setup that puts out 20,000 lumens, or a 150w HPS setup that puts out 16,000 lumens? i need to know soon, because im thinking about switching to HID. thanks for all quick replies!

How many plants are you growing?

4-6 autoflowers in a 2ft x 2ft x 4ft tent

Where ya getting a T5 that puts out 20,000 lumens? Never mind, I just found out the HO 54w puts out 5K lumens. How much are those HO units?

To answer your Q, go with the 20,000 lumenss!!!! Especially in a tent. Heat control will be a lot easier.

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-GrowBright-4-Foot-4-Lamp-High-Output-T5-With-Choice-of-Bulbs.asp

it might be bull... thats why i wanted to run it through RIU to see first.

the one in the link is $150 w your choice of bulbs included. thanks for the help dude! ill prob be going w the T5. especially since its summer time, and im in the south where it gets rediculously hot.

Jack Harer said:

Where ya getting a T5 that puts out 20,000 lumens?

Click to expand...

Thats what im wondering,i'd bet that he is adding lumens from several bulbs,which we all know isnt a working lumen model.

For the op,if your going to upgrade to hps dont even fuck around with those stupid little 150 watt hps porch lights,you can get a 400 watt hps system complete with everything you need including the bulb for $99 shipped right to your door,add another $50 if you want an air cooled hood.

Dont listen to the hype surrounding t-5's,they suck ass & in no way compete with hps,i own several 4ft 8 bulb t-5 units that are top of the line & i will be the 1st to say i got slick talked out of $600,the t-5's are barely better than a standard t-12 shop light, as long as you use natural daylight bulbs the shop light t-12's are a better buy over the t-5's.

Just get it over with & buy the best, most productive light source you can & thats hps,im sure some t-5 fan boys will dissagree,mostly beacuse its the lights they use or are planning to use,in reality side by side they suck after seeing 1st hand how they compare.

panhead said:

Thats what im wondering,i'd bet that he is adding lumens from several bulbs,which we all know isnt a working lumen model.

For the op,if your going to upgrade to hps dont even fuck around with those stupid little 150 watt hps porch lights,you can get a 400 watt hps system complete with everything you need including the bulb for $99 shipped right to your door,add another $50 if you want an air cooled hood.

Dont listen to the hype surrounding t-5's,they suck ass & in no way compete with hps,i own several 4ft 8 bulb t-5 units that are top of the line & i will be the 1st to say i got slick talked out of $600,the t-5's are barely better than a standard t-12 shop light, as long as you use natural daylight bulbs the shop light t-12's are a better buy over the t-5's.

Just get it over with & buy the best, most productive light source you can & thats hps,im sure some t-5 fan boys will dissagree,mostly beacuse its the lights they use or are planning to use,in reality side by side they suck after seeing 1st hand how they compare.

Click to expand...

WORD! this is what i was looking for. will a 400w get too hot for that small of a tent? i guess not if i get an air cooled hood.

T5 for sure, in your growtent you'll be able to keep them within inches of your plants.

As others have already stated a 150W/250W HPS will still put off heat, if you're going to jump into HID the bare minimum you should settle for is 400W.

T5 would definitely be better.. Almost no heat and more intensity compared to a 400w. in a tent you would definitely have to vent out the 400w


check this thread before you go and spend a bunch of unnecessary money.


https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/358190-led-without-leds-my-first.html

Yes, and...blackthumb has already stated that heat will probably be an issue in his locale.

BT, you do realize the fluorescent fixture you referenced won't fit into that tent horizontally, don't you? A 2' x 2' tent that's 4' tall isn't a lot of room to grow in.

The HTG 220w here:

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTG-Supply-2-Foot-4-Lamp-PL-55-Tek-Lamp.asp

Is a better fit for your space...but again, if you've got 60cm sides, that's under 24" - and any tube fluorescent fixture will burst your seams.

Nothing wrong with hanging 'em vertically, of course - if you know how to grow that way.

With a light like the one above, expect ~4oz a grow max (i.e. about 1oz+ per 55w tube). Best efficiency with good genetics will run 0.5-0.6 g/watt with those (highest I've seen so far anywhere is ~0.65).

This isn't exactly the best forum for T5's; icmag has better examples of folks growing during flowering that way.

----

Don't even think about a 400w HPS for that little amount of space, vented or no - that's severe overkill. Use those for 3'x3' tents, not the one you have. The largest you should think of using is 250w (62.5w/ sq ft); IF you can get rid of the heat properly. Can you - or are you in a non-conditioned airspace, and have to rely on airflow alone (i.e. no A/C)?

Otherwise, a 150w will do just fine. (I used to run ~5-6oz in a nice tight scrog with one in my smaller cab (NL x BB clones) a few years back.)

More is not always better. Not unless you want extreme light saturation leading to photoinhibition, Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), the creation of prolonged singlet Oxygen and triplet states for Chlorophyll (in Photosystem II, mainly) and oxidation as free radical Oxygen starts running around the system creating havoc. Enough of that can cause bleaching (breakup of the Chromophores), changes in pH gradients across cell membranes, and worse.

...All of which a 400w will most likely give you.

(my first degree was in biology and I've been growing more than two decades now - any questions, just ask.)
---

BTW, ALL lights give off lots of heat, even T5s - it's just emitted from the fixture differently (i.e. less radiant heat from PL-Ls). Always vent properly.

Looks like you've got some more research ahead of you...

Cheers,

-TL

you can do 4 foot t5 4 bulb vertical on each side. or 8 bulb . the spectrum from theses bulbs have a higher peak of nm on spectrum than a 1000w. therefore they have more intensity. so will absolutely have better results than a 150w or 400w. no ventilation needed just a fan and each bulb is 54 watts

Yeah if heat will be an issue then you'll have to go T5. I have a 2'7"x2'7" grow tent with a Digital 600 watt. During veg I ran it at 75% (450watts) and it was still about 84-86 i'd say....with an air cooled hood and the inside of my house being about 74. I ended up installing a Window AC in order to really cool it down. Either way I'd Scrog that lil tent!

panhead said:

Thats what im wondering,i'd bet that he is adding lumens from several bulbs,which we all know isnt a working lumen model.

For the op,if your going to upgrade to hps dont even fuck around with those stupid little 150 watt hps porch lights,you can get a 400 watt hps system complete with everything you need including the bulb for $99 shipped right to your door,add another $50 if you want an air cooled hood.

Dont listen to the hype surrounding t-5's,they suck ass & in no way compete with hps,i own several 4ft 8 bulb t-5 units that are top of the line & i will be the 1st to say i got slick talked out of $600,the t-5's are barely better than a standard t-12 shop light, as long as you use natural daylight bulbs the shop light t-12's are a better buy over the t-5's.

Just get it over with & buy the best, most productive light source you can & thats hps,im sure some t-5 fan boys will dissagree,mostly beacuse its the lights they use or are planning to use,in reality side by side they suck after seeing 1st hand how they compare.

Click to expand...

HPS will out perform floros every time, no doubt about it. BUT in a tent, I personally believe that dude would have an easier time controlling temps with the T5's. He certainly aint gonna corner the bud market with them, HPS will yield way more. No doubt about it. It will just be more difficult to control the temps. Doable no doubt tho...I had a friend (I have no idea how he did it) that had a 600w in a tent. I aint a huge fan of tents, either.
If you can get some good odor control and air exchange so you can control the temps, then get the 400w HPS. The floros will "get you by", the HPS will make you a happy camper

Actually right now I'm doing a side by side test of 1000w qauntum with eye hortilux. with 17 ladies under that and an 8 bulb t5 with an ATI 12000k aqua blue, korallen zucht fiji purple, uvl 454nm, uvl 75.25. uvl red sun. with 12 ladies under that. These bulbs blow away any fluro you can get in a hydro shop. I just started flowering. they have taken off faster and tighter nodes than under the 1000w. It will be a few weeks before i notice the difference. After reading that thread and talking to dude quite a bit, I also did all kinds of my own research about light spectra vs lumens. Scientists at the university of missouri and at oxford university have already proven that having the correct spectrum is more important than lumens and better results over all. No hid can produce the colors and spectrum these bulbs produce. where the spectrum peaks is what the intensity. now the 1000 hortilux and digilux both peak between 540nm and 620nm. of yellow, green, and red. the violet peaks around 230 nm , same range that plants absorbs green light. plants don't use all visible spectrum. so light and lumens and electricity are being wasted.

I'm confident that this experiment will work much better under the t5 than my 1000. I'm already thinking of selling my hid once the batch is done. These lights are equivalent to the top of the line $!500 led. The yield will probably be the same give or take. I think the ones under the t5 will be much more resinous. so using the t5 i don't have to ventilate so no holes cutting in the walls, I'll save money on electricity from less wattage, not having to run my a/c as much. my 1000w at 8.9 amps on 120 runs 1068 watts. on a 240 at 4,3 amps it runs 1036 watts. the t5 runs 432 on a 120 and 416 on a 240 and on a 240 on any light the heat will be cut in half.

I've flowered under both T5s and HPS and I prefer HPS. I found that using a 250w cooltube produced very little heat because of the cooling arrangement which let's me keep my light about 6"-8" off the top. Light penetration was also better with the HPS. I was using 21" 55w@4800 lumens compact T5s.

That said, I love my compact T5s for mothers/clones/vegging. Using 3 bulbs I can keep my veg cab cool with a PC fan and the lights about 4" off the top. This produces very short bushy plants which is what I'm looking for.

wow, thanks for the ass load of information! theres alot of good points being made. i really do need to do some more research.

if you want to go the t5 route. here are some good deals

http://www.thehydrosource.com/Lighting/Fluorescent_Lighting/T5_Fixtures/Quantum_T5_Badboy?zenid=dd7df91283d267b1124673c717771103

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/lighting/t5-lamps

I had the same question but went with this little 150watt crap. but my next set up will be a 400watt with a T5 vertically on each corner. I had them laying around since i didnt use it but i figured why not just throw them in to get a full spectrum ya know?

im using a 400 hps, with air cooled hood in the same size room, max temp so far....81 c

BUT im using a 190 m3/hr intake fan.