T5's need to be replaced every 6 months - True or False?

[RW]

T5's need to be replaced every 6 months - True or False?

I run mine about 15 hours/day and got them 5 months ago.  I read somewhere that they should be replaced every 6 months because the intensity decreases?, but as long as they work, I have a hard time justifying buying new bulbs.  Any thoughts, opinions and advice are appreciated.

[TCLynx]

Have you noticed a decrease in productivity on the plant growth?  Maybe if you have fixtures in other parts of the house that could take the same tubes, you could use the them for 6 months in the grow lights and then move them out to the shop/garage or where ever else until they give up completely.

[AJ Grottke]

The t5 bulbs still work after 6 months. Its just that the same amount of watts are used but much less lumens are put out.  It is not very noticeable to the naked eye.  Use a light meter right when u get the bulbs and then after 6 months of use and you'll see the numbers.  The output of light is much less, but your still pulling the same amount of watts.  Its an NRG efficiency thing.  IF your just growing some plants for yourself, and your low on cash you dont need to replace the bulbs.  But your not getting MAX output for the NRG being used.  Hope this helps.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

We ran into this issue when I was at AeroGrow.  Our engineers studied the test results from various compact florescent bulb manufacturers, and it is indeed true that even though the visible light still makes the bulb appear fine to the human eye after six months, the bulb's ability to provide enough lumens to grow plants declines drastically after that point.  TC has a great suggestion...and it is where we were going with providing an adapter so you could use our spent bulbs in household lamps and fixtures.  The problem you are going to face is that a T5 bulb has a very specific socket and won't be easily put into another, non-T5 fixture.  But hopefully you will find some other way to use these after 6 months!

[TCLynx]

It would probably even be worth installing T5 fixtures in some of those places in the house where bright light is useful for doing projects.  They wouldn't need to be the fancy 4 tube shiny reflector fixtures like you spend much money on for the grow lights.  For very basic shop type fixtures it doesn't cost that much.  The actual fixture for T5 isn't that much different than any other shop light, the ballast for florescent fixtures is the most expensive part.

[AJ Grottke]

You can get t5 strip lights (1 bulb per fixture), and use them for general purpose lighting as you guys are saying.  I use these things all the time,  I like the flexibility these fixtures provide.  http://www.specialty-lights.com/960320.html

[RW]

thanks for the advice and tips.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Nice!  Thanks for that link, AJ.