Your situation is different from mine. My growing space is in a
sunroom. It has a nice, leaky steam radiator for heat during the
winter. I have east, lots of south, and west exposures--so I don't need
the "sodium" aspect of HID lighting. Also, because I use my growing
space as an office, the last thing that I'd want is HPS lighting--it is
weird and ugly. MH light is far more attractive, and balanced with
natural daylight, it provides a complete spectrum of light. The banks
of fluorescent lights under shelves are not obnoxious.

Because you are growing in a garage, you might want to check out the
dual MH / HPS lights--they give a balance of growing/fruiting light.
And in a garage, you might want the extra heat. I don't know where you
live, but if your nights are cold (mine are sub-zero), you might want
to invest in some heated seedling mats. My floor-growing areas in the
sunroom are chilly because they are above an unheated garage. Putting
in heated seedling mats under the orchids' humidity trays made a huge
difference in their health. Also, a min/max thermometer is a good
investment. At 2 AM, it can get damn cold, and you'd never know it
unless you are an insomniac.

jtill wrote:
I am glad my winter is still three months off, this thread shows that
finding the right lighting at a reasonable cost is difficult. Right
now I am leaning to a HPS kit (www.ezhydrokit.com/default.php?cPath=21)
since I will need the heat in my garage anyway. When you make your
choice please post it here as I would like to have the info.
Joe T
Baytown

danny wrote:
Apparently these are high output T5 fixtures. The bulbs that came with my
fixture say they are 54W / 4200 lumens each, 216 watts for the four tube
fixture. That lumen output doesn't sound all that great for the amount of
power but it's ok I guess. They claim to be some sort of grow bulb so the
lumens/watt may not be the highest possible? I just did a quick search and
found another 54W grow bulb that claimed to be 5000 initial / 4700 mean
lumens. The eight tube fixtures are 432 Watts, so their output should be
comparable to my 400W metal halide fixtures but spread more evenly..
-danny

"Dusty" wrote in message
. 17.102...
"danny" wrote in
:
I'm not sure if your are getting all good information from the Guy at
the hydoponics shop. I've looked up the T-5 lamps specifications and I
only see about a 10% gain in light over a standard 40 watt. However
being small as they are you may be able to cram a lot of lamps close
together and get a higher amount of light.You could also do that with T-
8 lamps which are a lot less costly. Here's the specs as I found them
between T-5's & T-12's;

T-5 lamp Width 5/8 in. Length 48 in. 28 Watts Rated Life
36000 Hours
F28W/T5/830 Color Temperature 3000K Lumens 2900 Initial/2726 Mean
F28W/T5/865/ECO Color Temperature 6500K Lumens 2700 Initial/2480 Mean
...
Grow well and bloom magnificently
dusty