Great T5 Lighting!

[Derek Arita]

I had to replace some T12 bulbs in my garage lights, so I decided to get some T5 fixtures and give them a try. I got one that was more of a grow light, with 4 T5 bulbs and another from HD with 4 lights. I had to purchase the bulbs with the HD fixture. Both fixtures are High Output and use 54W bulbs...a must for the shop.
What a difference! The T5 lights are at least 2 or 3 times brighter than the T12 lights were. I have some pretty bright, direct sunlight coming thru the garage door windows, but the T5s pretty much even out that light throughout the shop. Also, the bulbs I purchased from HD are extremely white and match the sunlight coming in, as compared with the grow light bulbs, which are bright, but not as white. I have two, 4 bulb fixtures, which are enough to brightly lite the entire shop.
The lights are hard to look at directly, because they are so bright. I read that some people think they are too bright to use for ceiling heights any less that 10 or 12 feet, however I'm having no trouble with them with a ceiling height of about 8 1/2 feet. These light are giving me the perfect amount of lite I needed in the garage shop.

[Jim Andrew]

That sounds good, 2 to 3 times brighter! Do the bulbs run a lot hotter than the old T 12's?

[Derek Arita]

No...not a lot hotter, but that's just anecdotal. If that's a factor, I'm sure you could find info on that. Seems like they run warmer to me, but not hot. Thing I like about the HD bulbs are that they are not only very bright, but they are also very white.
The grow light I found on Amazon is also High Output, but it is "nicer". It's wider and may spread the light a little better. Both have mirrored reflectors, but the HD fixture is probably 2/3 the width of the grow light fixture. Also, the grow light comes with a switch and a long cord with plug. Since I hardwired the fixtures, I didn't need the switch nor cord.
Bulbs that come with the grow light produce a "warmer" light...slightly less white. Once I installed the HD fixture/bulbs and saw the difference in color temp between the bulbs, I simply put two of each bulb in each fixture to even out the color of the light.
By the way, I was told that my local HD has replaced all of their 8', T8 overhead fixtures with these T5 fixtures. They said it uses less electricity and produces more light...a win/win.

[John Lifer]

Well I would hope the new T5 put out twice the light as the T12, your running 54w vs what? 20w for the T12?
If you have half the bulbs as previously, you are only using 35% more electricity

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Well I would hope the new T5 put out twice the light as the T12, your running 54w vs what? 20w for the T12?
If you have half the bulbs as previously, you are only using 35% more electricity

Isn't the part of the T5's appeal it's better efficiency? Mine pull a little less than 1 amp for 6-4' bulbs at 120 volts. Don't know what the T12's do, but it would be easy to measure. Personally it doesn't matter to me what the power use is, as long as the light is right, and I like my T5s.

[Derek Arita]

Isn't the part of the T5's appeal it's better efficiency? Mine pull a little less than 1 amp for 6-4' bulbs at 120 volts. Don't know what the T12's do, but it would be easy to measure. Personally it doesn't matter to me what the power use is, as long as the light is right, and I like my T5s.

+1 on that! Also, forgot to mention these lites take a few minutes to come up to full bright, so don't be surprised. I'm 60 and the old eyes aren't what they used to be, so the more lite the better. These T5s have really helped.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I read a thread on another forum from several years back, and a couple of the posters were adamently opposed to t5s because they supposedly didn't work at low temperatures. They had a chart that said that the output was seriously degraded at 70 degrees F. They failed to take into account that the bulbs warm themselves in operation, and their temperature maintains at higher than ambient temp. Quite a bit of speculation out there about t5s, and I think as people get to actually using them, they will like them.

[Derek Arita]

Well, high 30s here overnight and no trouble with the T5s firing up nice and bright. Seems warm or cold, the T5s take about a minute to come to full bright.

[Brian Brightwell]

A whole minute to come to full brightness? I could get a lot done in a minute. Not!!!

[Steve Rozmiarek]

It's supposed to be below zero here over the weekend, so just for fun I'm going to time the T5 to full light at that temp in my unfinished woodshop. Will post results, but I'm betting it will still won't be enough time to drink a cup of coffee...

[Derek Arita]

Well I would hope the new T5 put out twice the light as the T12, your running 54w vs what? 20w for the T12?
If you have half the bulbs as previously, you are only using 35% more electricity

Just wanted to add, I don't know how many T12s I'd have to put up to match the light of the T5s, but I know it would be a lot. Also, the color temp would never be the same. What I mean is, the T12s would never put out that white light that I'm getting from the T5s.

[Igor Petrenko]

My home depot has most of fixtures on display lighted up. T5HO is amazingly brighter then anything else. They also have chart to compare all T bulbs in light output and power usage. High Output T5s are 2x brighter then T5 but they are also eating 2x more electricity. T5 are only slightly more efficient then T8, around 10% maybe.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

In case anyone is curious, I fired up my 6 bulb T5 beta test fixture in the unheated, unfinished woodshop today. It was 0 F, and it took 2 mins to come up to full bright. Flick the switch and they immediately come on at probably 25% and pretty quickly improve from there.

For comparison the T12 HOs in my "heated" 50 degree F woodshop do something similar, but you can see the pulsing waves of light in them when cold. It takes them roughly a minute to go from there to full power.

I haven't measured the actual light output, but I think it would take 6 of these four foot T5 fixtures to equal the light that the 7, 8 foot T12 HO's put out in the old woodshop.