Do you use a combination of 2 feet x 4 bulb fixtures?Old Yeller said:VH - 2'x4b T5 = 96W, 4'x4b T5 = 216W & 4'x8b T5 = 432W. I'm using 3 blue to 1 red bulbs for a mixed spectrum in veg & the opposite in the tent.
Interesting, was just reading the dealer pitch about T5s and they say many growers switching to them etc etc and addOld Yeller said:T5's have a small, narrow electronic ballast & they do put out some heat - just spread out a lot more than a point source HID light. The big 4' x 8 bulb T5 in my tent puts out as much heat as a 400W HID & they will toast any buds that get within 1" or so.
I take it when they say close to the tops they might mean closer than an MH/HPS but definitely a few inches away or more? Also, the lumens on a 2-4 or even 2-6 might be less than on an HID 150w bulb but it's distributed and I guess focused down to the plant so that there's less lumen loss than with a reflector trying to redirect light to the plants? I just wonder which is more efficient. But your results look about perfect to me.This allows the grower to place the T5 fluorescents very close to the plant canopy while still achieving the light spread across the entire garden area. Placing the light closer to the plants equates into very high light intensity. Metal Halide’s small arc tube also gets very hot and if placed too close to plants it will actually burn them. Since T5 fluorescents have such a large area of light source along the bulb they also emit considerably less heat than Metal Halides and thus can be placed very close the the tops of your plants.