T5 LED Retrofit Bulbs?

[NorCalAnthony]

Has anybody tried using LED retrofits for the T5 plant bulbs in their fixtures? Looks like they should last twice as long and use a little less than half the electricity than a standard T5 bulb which looks promising but I wanted to see if anyone else had tried them yet and what their thoughts/opinions were. Here's one of the ones I was looking at:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips...be-Light-Bulb-Daylight-5000K-473520/305851017

This will be for a large clearside atrium from Bill @Dragon Strand and a 48" sun blaze fixture from Todd @LYR that should hopefully be showing up in a couple of weeks for my juvie OE Parson's.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

@nightanole

 

[nightanole]

I use hyperion brand for my retro fits, i have not tried the phillips.

That being said, they will work, they will put out 1/3 less light than the florecent t5ho bulb, but they will use half the wattage.

If you want my "feels", i would not do it. First 6500k bulbs are cheap, and higher end bulbs like zoomed ultrasuns, last forever (im pushing 10 years with no degradation). Yes it uses half the wattage, but you also only get 2/3 the output. So you are not saving much, and the led will break long before you save on the electricity costs.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Thanks @nightanole. Out of curiosity do you know how many lumens the standard T5 HO bulbs put out? I've been trying to figure that out and have seen as low as 3200 lumens and as high as 5000 for the 46" bulb size I'm looking at. Same with the LED retrofits that go as low 1600 lumens and as high as 3500 with those Phillips bulbs I linked to which is why I was thinking they might be a good alternative.

 

[nightanole]

Thanks @nightanole. Out of curiosity do you know how many lumens the standard T5 HO bulbs put out? I've been trying to figure that out and have seen as low as 3200 lumens and as high as 5000 for the 46" bulb size I'm looking at. Same with the LED retrofits that go as low 1600 lumens and as high as 3500 with those Phillips bulbs I linked to which is why I was thinking they might be a good alternative.

"most" T5 HO bulbs will be 5000, an normalize to 4500 (aka its a bath tub scale and they will eat 10% of light output very quickly and then none at all till death)
"most" T5 HO led retro fits (and by retro fit i mean you dont have to take the hood apart vs the retro fits that you just reroute 120v to the bulb pins and bypass the ballast) are 3000. And LEDS really game the system, so a 3000 led is not going to be as bright "overall" vs a 3000 tube.

And you have to really watch the retro fits, because outside of plant/fish/reptile, they use mostly T5 Non HO in office settings, odds are that is how you are finding some really low 1500 lum units.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Wow, you really know your stuff @nightanole. Thanks for all that info, you were a lot more help than all my Googling lol.