ETpilot
Gold Member
I just did a light upgrade. A few months ago I needed some light for house plants that were going to be locked up for a week or two. I decided to get new fixtures and lights. After reviewing wattage, lumens, bulb life I settle on 2 regular 4' dual bulb T5 fixtures. These lights were super bright and I wound up replacing my garage fixtures with the T5. The garage is now much brighter than before.
I then looked to replace my shop, 30x40x12, light. My main light in my shop is a very old 8' 2 bulb, 214W each bulb, fluorescent that puts out 27,000 lumens. It is super bright for my work area. It is also about 30+ years old and was starting to fail, not too good in cold weather. None of the lights I looked at came close to the lumen output. That is until I looked at the T5 fixture. They make make a HO T5 fixture with four 4' bulbs. Comparing old with new, Old was 27,000 lumen at 428W, new is 20,000 lumen at 216W. This was the way to go. So I installed the new and compared light output in operation and I am happy. The new light is just a bit less bright but is using less wattage. I plan to install a second fixture on a separate switch. This will give me 40,000 lumens at 432W. Hog heaven I think. I also have 2 T12 HO in shop.
These new lights take a second or two to start up. They start up dim but go to full light after a minute or two. I had them start no problem at 15* cold day. After re-reading this thread I checked for radio interference and none exists. They are really light weight compared to my 1 ton old one. They do not have a reflector but I plan to fabricate and add a reflector. Cost around $100.00 with bulbs. So far I am satisfied.
I then looked to replace my shop, 30x40x12, light. My main light in my shop is a very old 8' 2 bulb, 214W each bulb, fluorescent that puts out 27,000 lumens. It is super bright for my work area. It is also about 30+ years old and was starting to fail, not too good in cold weather. None of the lights I looked at came close to the lumen output. That is until I looked at the T5 fixture. They make make a HO T5 fixture with four 4' bulbs. Comparing old with new, Old was 27,000 lumen at 428W, new is 20,000 lumen at 216W. This was the way to go. So I installed the new and compared light output in operation and I am happy. The new light is just a bit less bright but is using less wattage. I plan to install a second fixture on a separate switch. This will give me 40,000 lumens at 432W. Hog heaven I think. I also have 2 T12 HO in shop.
These new lights take a second or two to start up. They start up dim but go to full light after a minute or two. I had them start no problem at 15* cold day. After re-reading this thread I checked for radio interference and none exists. They are really light weight compared to my 1 ton old one. They do not have a reflector but I plan to fabricate and add a reflector. Cost around $100.00 with bulbs. So far I am satisfied.
