Switching to t5

[Winston]

I have finally decided to switch to t5 lights. They seen to give the most light and are not as hot as t12 and t8.

[billc]

My T5's put out a lot more heat than my T8's.

Bill

[Winston]

I was told the t5puts out less heat than my t12

[orchidsarefun]

heat is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are an indoor grower, cool-growers do well in the basement under lights and others do well elsewhere. It depends too if your house is heated/cooled. Lights are off overnight and allow for a reduction in temps which most plants benefit from.

[Winston]

I live in Arizona which is very hot. I don't wrap my plant stand in plastic because it gets way too hot 90 plus degrees. I heard that t5 have better light and are not as hot as my t12. If I am going to switch from my t12's doesn't it make sense to go with t5

[Oscarman]

I find the compact nature of the T5 fixtures (like SunBlaster) do run a bit hotter. Light quality is better. Watch out for sun burn when you switch over.

[jkt97401]

Does anyone cool their t5s? I just purchased a hydrofarm t5HO 4 foot, 8 bulb fixture and I'm wondering if I should set up a fan to cool it

[billc]

I run a fan in an enclosed area with 2 4FT 4 bulb T5HO' s not to cool the lights but to take advantage of the heat and circulate it through out the growing area. An eight bulb T5 HO is going to throw out some serious light, you may need some welding goggles to look at the plants when it's on.

Bill

[katrina]

Originally Posted by billc

My T5's put out a lot more heat than my T8's.

Bill

Agreed. If you're getting HO T5s...they will be hotter than the T8, 10, or 12. Better light- definitely...but more heat too.

If you only have one bank of lights it won't make THAT much difference but if you have many lights...you will notice the heat. My furnace doesn't run in the middle of winter when my lights are on. Of course, I have a lot of lights and they are in the room where the thermostat is but the room stays a cozy 72-74 in the dead of winter...because of the lights. It can be well below freezing outside...my grow space will be a cozy 74. If the outside temps are mild (over 40) then I will often times have at least one window cracked so the space doesn't get too warm.

And, again, this is HO T5s (High Output)...I have no experience w/the regular T5s available. FWIW - Everything I read when exploring the different light options points to the fact that the HOs are going to be better (than reg T5s) for high light plants. If you're growing only lower light orchids/plants the reg T5s would be sufficient.

---------- Post added at 08:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:25 AM ----------

Originally Posted by jkt97401

Does anyone cool their t5s? I just purchased a hydrofarm t5HO 4 foot, 8 bulb fixture and I'm wondering if I should set up a fan to cool it

I have far more lights and no I don't cool them but like Bill...I have fans going in the room. 2 ceiling fans as well as a couple of smaller fans on the floor to circulate the air. I use the smaller floor fans to push the heated air to the rest of the house.

Just be careful of how close you place your plants. If the plants have been under less than ideal light levels you want to acclimate them to the higher intensity but you'll also need to keep them from being too close to the bulbs. And watch your spikes! I've accidentally burned spikes because they grew up into the lights and I didn't catch it.

[silken]

I've always heard that a HO T5 puts out about twice as much light as 1 T12. So when comparing heat, compare the heat of two T12's to 1 T5 and then it is not so much extra heat for the same amount of light. I really like the compact light weight size of the T5's