So thankful when people take time to share valuable information in an organized well-thought out manner! Very well done and much appreciated!

Watching this here in Canada in 2022. The basics presented are spot-on except for cost. You can still buy T12 and T8 bulbs in pairs for the same cost at your local hardware store or building supply centre. Unfortunately, these stores have not caught on to LED linears in an economic way. Limited stock, lower lumens and anywhere from 2 to 4x the cost of a common 32W/48 in T8. Further, they are all instant-fit so you still need the existing ballast in the fixture. Seems the better way to go is direct-wire/no ballast but those bulbs are more expensive yet.

This is an excellent presentation. Except that it omits one of the most important considerations: Do the different tubes fit the same holder brackets if the lengths are equal?" Does a T8 fit in a legacy T12 fixture? Same for T5. And LED bulb. Will the older T12 fit in a modern T8 bracket? If the answer is NO, the whole discussion is academic. Replacing the whole fixture to use a different form factor tube is not only impractical, in most cases, it makes all discussion of power savings per year specious.

Great info Greg! I've been using a T8 for some years now and most of my plants grow amazingly

T5´s are made for environments of 35c° while T8´s work most efficiently at 25c°, if one calculates that for his use based on his environment it can often be the case that T8´s are cheaper in the end.

U have trouble getting down to info facts period pleaze. But u did better then some ppl who want to Show u what there plants look like. And thy dont even like ther plants enough not to strip them of every leaf on the stem. And uprooting them to harvest. Im just saying. Thnk u. U have good info.

I have T12 and T8 tubes.In Europe T8 4 foot lamps have 36w (Philips eco use 32w to replace 36w and save energy).T12 bulbs are produced still by Philips,Tungsram and GE.Some are for home use and for medical use.Most of T12 tubes which i have are 30 years old and they work like charm.Expectly rare T8 pieces which are 10 years old.

Great baseline material, nowadays the cost to replace some of the bulbs cost more than the fixture when first purchased. I run leds and my plants grow well. Depending on the plant you can use just about any bulb but research is key and with the help of this vid it will give the consumer more info to make the right choices. Great vid!

Nice comparison. I tend to go LEDs now a days as the tech is working great for planted tanks, even for high light growth. Great Video!

Great review Greg! I appreciate all the info! I was trying to decide to whether or not to swith to LED. I believe that this made my choice easier! Keep up the great work!

My experience with LEDs is that the LEDs may last 50k h but the electronics die much sooner. They will start flickering. 5000h is more realistic

Just the video I was looking for, thanks! :D

Coming up on video 400! Congrats! Awesome explanation on the various bulbs!

Thank you for the video. It's 2019 and this is still good info.

Absolutely one of the best explanations on lighting! Thanks so mush

Thanks for my school teaching everything in metric system. I am sorry for all those poor kids that have to work out 17 & 11/64 bullshits on a measuring tape. All I had to remember was that 1" was 25.4mm.

I still buy T12s all the time. I use them to grow lettuce. $25/ 10-pack.

thanks for the video! I did not know which is the best light to purchase for my aquarium plants in order to promote growth but now I do so thanks again.

Great explanation .

Also, if you go planted at t5ho you have to account that you should be changing them out about every year, whether or not you've used up the hours or not.

Thank you for this video was looking into the shop light option!

Great video Greg, very informative and nice information breakdown.

Gracias for the good info! God bless!

Thankyou for the info.. I had no idea what most of this meant before but now it's helped me a lot to learn from this video

yesterday 2/2019 at Lowes I bought T12 Plant and Aquarium bulbs, the place had lots of them. they are 1900 lumens, not 2600, they are 3100 kelvins

Thanks! This is a very well done video, I appreciate your error.

T12 is still very efficient. The super efficient LED T12 single pin bulbs can get in the 130 lumens per watt area. But the lights are 30-40$ PER bulb. There are some T12 bulbs from GE for example 8 foot ones. That are cool white use 60 watts and put out 5900 lumens. Thats 98 lumens per watt. I think you need to look up a better t12 bulb than the one you have. I have 8 foot shop light t12s that are the 60w 5900 lumen bulbs.. that means im getting 1200 11800 lumens for a 2 bulb fixture for 120w. Youd be hard pressed to find 12000 lumens from two 8 foot single pin t12 leds. They have em like i said but theyre hard to find and very expensive

This was really cool indeed I enjoyed it Greg 🤗🤗😎

Great video. BUT, atleast in Sweden. High Output T5 costs everything from 17-26 dollars for one 54w bulb to buy. yet again great video.

Total lumens is not a good comparison between florescent and LED. Florescent radiates light in all directions where a LED is directional and directs the light in the direction you use it. Most people perceive LEDs as brighter than the florescent it replaced.

On a serous note ,I can get all these lights in Norway I just cant get the right Kelvin ..meaning I have to stick to T8 :(

Wish ya would use incandescent for a bench mark comparison. I are old and like living in the past. For example, 100 watt led bulbs claim to use 15 watt.

Good job man very nice explanation

Thanks seriously needed this

Very nice. Very helpful. Thanks.

A bit out of date considering new LED at 1800 lumens can use 9.8 watts making long term ownership even cheaper. Also you can assume hydro costs will go up over time and cost per bulb for led will go down over time.

I have led tube lights installed in all my rooms 2 years ago but they have started dimming now. The flouroscent tube lights we had earlier were not giving such problem.

Thanks sir very much for describing d difference.

But since LED has less luminous, it also has less deep penetration to lower parts of Growth ? In till than no one gonna get good yields if your using them for plants.

Hey Greg, thanks for sharing the knowledgable content, can you share the rationale for running cost per year calculation for my understanding.

Yes they make them (T12) still. I sell tons of them

im using t8 garage lights for my first marijuana grow seems to be working well plus using a lot of aluminum foil lol hey im broke and noob im making shit work lol but will def need stronger light for flower im def aware of that QUESTION- is it possible to grow good bud if i just change bulbs out and get kick ass spendy flower stage bulbs? opinions? ty guys

cool comparison. thanks Greg. :)

thank you - that explained a lot!

Great video... I learned a lot from it ...thank you.

Your 20,000 hour lifespan for Flor are until they burnout? It is my understanding their usable life for plants or reefs is closer to 4,000 to 7000 hours. The LED you were showing looks interesting - what is it?

Thanks for making this video!

Good stuff!

Good info, the only issue I see is that your 20 year cost does not include the cost of replacement bulbs. If you're growing plants you should be replacing the fluorescent bulbs every year, maybe every 2 year if you're only running them 3 hours a day, but most people growing plants are going to run their lights at least 6 hours a day.

Helpful!

Really really good video thanks very informative 👍💯✨✨

Lots of T12 for sale at HD.

I have t12 bulbs in my kitchen.. I just asked my gf to buy new ones cause she works at home depot and she brought some home.. I also got a new t12 ballast.. so how did this happen?

Hi how about the cost of the light bulb as for comparison in 20 years? And most light bulb weather led or not do not last 20 years and especially on the overheating don't last that long. Pls advise tq🙏

Thanks buddy

I see no swap out comperasins. My shop has 12 -t12 fixtures. What is the pay back time in usage hours to swap them out to LED, versus buying bulbs for existing T-12,s.. I know that solar is perhaps 10 years minimum pay back,, and at ten years you will definitely need to switch the batteries. Being i use the lights and average of 2 hours a day over a year, and that i need bright light that will spread out, not sure its worth the cost. We live in a society that says buy the latest and greatest.. well that changes every year. If the point is to save money i would have to ask a few questions.. Do you own your house and cars outright. If your paying interest on home loans and car loans and credit card loan, that will far outway any cost for a few light bulbs will save you. There is also a huge environmental impact on interest payments on money borrowed. There are no simple answers. Now if we are debt free, and are adding new lights for new construction it makes sense. We must consider every possible angle to really know if we are saving money and or saving the environment. I am now debt free and do not owe 1 cent to anyone at this moment in time... Of course i have the normal bills, cell phone, cable, internet, food and so on. GET OUT OF DEBT before you buy more things that prolong your debt. When i was younger 1/2 my income went to mortgage payments.. When the mortgage is paid off you can work 1/2 the hours you needed to make the house payment,, plus then there was the car payments, credit card payments.. We are a slave to debt... the point is will a few LED bulbs get you out of debt faster?

7:24 for full view of the chart

A proper T5 tube for growing plants (6,500k-8,000k) or corals (11,000k-15,000k) will cost a lot more than $6.

good video but i wish you would have put a view of the full chart for the first few seconds, all i needed was the chart. ty for the research tho

I thought it was tenths. The T stands for tenths so a t12 is 12 tenths and so on down the line. T12 are definitely still in production.

Simple question.. Out of this which is the best suited for planted aquarium??

t-12 's are still available at the home depot and local hardware stores.....maybe just not available where your at...arkansas's got scads of 'em...............this is what i have in my shop and(( house/utility room and kitchen))hope they keep making them...would hate to have to change out fixtures or ballasts----expensive...instructions say not to interchange..........jda

just subbed great info and very helpful when it comes to explaining to my fiance

t12's... if you cant find them, you're not looking... Home depot has tons of them... A problem with LED's you only get a short width on the spectrum.. as plants need multiple colors to bring out their full growth (nutrition, root production, stem production, flower production....etc) you dont get that unless you look for a full spectrum bulb...

I am looking into buying a used aquarium with a canopy lighting. I am researching about lighting as I am a total newbie. IThis is the first i heard of led int his style. I have been seeing led is the new way. How does this compare to the big expensive led fixtures that are like 500.00? Can you grow coral in saltwater aquariums? Appreciate any info!

T-800 was the best ;)

So T5 HO has over twice the lumens as the LED so to get the same amount of light you would have to double the bulbs which would double the cost of the LED and eliminate the savings correct?

very interesting, Have you grown plants w/ the LED tube bulb? YOu may have said,but is it 4ft length?

can I replace T12's with T8's?

Should have measured the led by par.

I have a 4 tube ballast, right now it has t12's. What I'm wondering is if I can put 2 T5 HO and 2 reg t5 in the same ballast. The max wattage for the ballast is 172, so I would be under the max. Is it okay to mix these 2 types of T5's in 1 ballast?

does the LED bulbs work in the conventional flourescent fixtures?

AgroLED makes a 41 watt LED T5 retrofit thats 5,000 lumens

BUT are you running a ballast or not with LED's ?

Were do you get a LED for $7.00. I just priced one out at $50 USD, plush shipping, and exchange to Canada. That would make them just under $100 Canadian.

T5 Run It 💨

Wit that led tube did you have to rewire the ballast and what not?

how do you tell the difference between aT8 and T12 ballast?

I went to Home Depot today and almost all their bulbs were T12.

Only thing let's don't give UV & IR spectrum

where do you buy led light for $ 7.oo

TOP

The problem is that these bulbs die out before 20 years so then we have to factor in buying new bulbs!

Where i can get LED light the last one plzz

You are not even factoring in the cost of ballast replacement. I have installed a few hundred LED T8 replacements. Your $7 a bulb for the LED is a bit low for high quality but not bad at all.

But which bulbs actually show off the colours of your fish ?

.11 KWH... :( man, you sure don't live in California! I gotta get out of this place!

Finally, a straight math video. Thank you for I+D

A T12 fluorescent is not that inefficient. It’s pretty efficient and incandescent bulbs are good. Donald Trump is smart for getting the good old lights back.

I still use T-12 bulbs.

Well shit i must have did the math wrong because i got 143.00 per year from .7 cent kwh charge

WHY WOULD I BUY A LIGHT THAT WILL NOT PUT OUT THE LIGHT I NEED OR WANT EVEN IF IT IS GOING TO COST ME LESS IN THE LONG RUN??? T-12 AND FORGET THE LED!!!

Yeah, yeah, ok, ok - I see all the math and stuff... But here's the important question: If one LED tube light is heading east at 111 lumens per watt, and one florescent tube light is heading west at 89 LPW - at what time does my Hot Pocket come out of the microwave?

I hate LED lights with a pashion.