"Power Compact" vs T5's

Been doing a little bulb shopping and have found that the fixture I have uses "Power compact fluorescent bulbs which seem to be different than T5's. Mine are 4 pin, not 2 pin like a standard t5 bulb. The light was advertised as a high output t5 fixture but it seems it is a glorified CFL. BTW, My light is a "TEK 4" from HTG supply.

Post a pic of the bulb with the pins and I can tell you what bulb it is. HO T5 is better than CFL watt per watt.

I found out. It is a PL-55 bulb which is sort of a CFL but in tube form. From what I have read, they are actually brighter than T5's or CFL's.

"Brighter" is a term used to describe lighting for humans. Lumens and color temp are actual values that you need to know for plants.

As far as I can tell, that style of bulb should work well, as long as you have the right color temps. They are probably more like a T5 if you have a decent reflector - they seem like they wouldn't have the strike-back issue like the coil CFLs. Basically, you have a T5 that is bent in half. I've seen some on-line shops selling grow lights with the PL-55 bulbs.

You're right. I just used "brighter" because I didn't have specific data for comparison. More intense, better penetration might be more accurate. They put out more lumens per square foot than T5's or CFL's and run just as cool.

The lamps I use are (4 ea) 55w @ 6400k. They put out 5,000 lumens each. They are long and low profile making for a nice distribution of light.

I have found that the intensity of the lamps requires more distance from the plants than CFL's or T5's, especially seedlings. I put a 2' 4 lamp fixture a few inches from 12 seedlings and killed one, stunted the rest. It was just too much. Moved them about 12" away and the plants are responding much better.

MYOB said:

I found out. It is a PL-55 bulb which is sort of a CFL but in tube form. From what I have read, they are actually brighter than T5's or CFL's.

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Yep that is a straight pin PC or Power Compact bulb. They are the same as CFL bulbs. They are not brighter than T5. I am into saltwater reef aquarium keeping and we use PC and T5 lighting to keep photosynthetic corals. PC used the standard for fluorescent lighting about 7-8 years ago notw HO T5 has pretty much replaced PC lighting. The reason for this is the HO T5 lights put out more watt for the same sixed bulb and PAR and Lumens are much higher per watt as well. SPS (Small Polyp Stoney) corals and the hardest to keep and the most light demanding PC lighting will not cut it for them but HO T5 works very very well, they rival HID/HPS/MH lighting and are cheaper to run and run cooler. Correct brightness as nothing to do with the performance of the bulb. There are spectrums of light that the plants need that we are not able to see.

Thanks

There seems to be little info on PL's in relation to growing but from what I gather they are basically T5's "doubled" so they you can get more in less space. They also run cooler again, from what I have read.


Here is a quote from IC Mag forum :

"Type L CFLs not only are more efficients than any screw in CFL, but the light use is way better: evenly distributed and lower optical losses due some tubes blocking the light of other tubes as happen on typical multitubes CFLs."

and regarding the heat issue vs coiled CFL's:

"1) The ballast(s) are mounted outside so that heat you don't have to deal with. Screw in CFLs each have a ballast inside that big plastic part the coil is attached to. (The bigger ones have a remote ballast but see #2 below)

2) They don't shine their light on the back of a coil heating it up. All the light goes up to your reflector or down to your plants. The larger your coiled CFL (over 27w) the more light is being used to heat up the glass of the coil next to it. Wasting watts through producing heat instead of light."

Here is the thread if interested:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=132787

Thanks for your input. Plants are only a week old but are doing well under the PLs. The fixture was advertised as a HOT5, it wasnt until I started looking to buy some replacement bulbs that I discovered that they were actually PL's.

They still are not as good as HO T5 but they should work.

Ok lets look at 2 bulbs both for a 36" light fixture both for flowering cause that is what we care about. The PC bulb is 22.5" in length so not a true 36 inch bulb, it is rated at 40 watts and 2970 lumens. A HO T5 bulb is 34 inches so coverage is better, is rated at 39 watts so it uses less energy and is rated at 3500 lumens. The math is pretty simple. I am doing my first T5 grown and an in week 3 of flower and I am very impressed and surprised at the results so far.

...those are called PL-Ls and are a form of remote battasted CFLs and i disagree that T5s are more powerful, my 55watters are approx. 22inchs long so 2 of them, end to end would be 44inchs long, ...i don't think i've ever seen a 4ft T5 bulb rated at 110watts.

...they are also available in almost any Kelvin temp you might want.

...and there are MANY people over at the mag who use these quite effectively, ...look for 'superpedro' if you want to see a really cool one, he is one clever guy. ...and 'Inefectualize', be sure and check out his 'high-pod' grow.

peace, bozo

btw, here's a few pics of my clone/seedling box which is powered by 3x 55PL-Ls and has been running now for at least 2 years, i forget when i built it exactly.



...and this is superpedro's PL-L setup.

Nope a 4 ft T5 bulb will be 96 watts and have more PAR/lumens that a PC or CFL of equal size and wattage. That was my point is less watts used but more output.

intenseneal said:

Nope a 4 ft T5 bulb will be 96 watts and have more PAR/lumens that a PC or CFL of equal size and wattage. That was my point is less watts used but more output.

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can you link to where it is you can find 96watt T5's?

peace, bozo

Or do you mean 4ft 4tube...?? that would be awesome tho a 96w t5

intenseneal said:

Ok lets look at 2 bulbs both for a 36" light fixture both for flowering cause that is what we care about. The PC bulb is 22.5" in length so not a true 36 inch bulb, it is rated at 40 watts and 2970 lumens. A HO T5 bulb is 34 inches so coverage is better, is rated at 39 watts so it uses less energy and is rated at 3500 lumens. The math is pretty simple. I am doing my first T5 grown and an in week 3 of flower and I am very impressed and surprised at the results so far.

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the power compacts that I am using are 21.5 inches long and rated at 55 watts at 4800 lumen. they are 6500k and 3000k and much brighter than my t5ho 2ft tubes. it sounds like you are using the lower power PCs so your comparison is like comparing a t5 to a t5ho tube. PCs are available in lengths up to 96 inches. I used a watt meter and lux meter for my comparison and they do a great job an terrestrial plants.I to had to place them higher above the plants because they would slow growth if place to close to the plant. I am very happy with the performance I get from these lights. https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/59543/FC55-DT5565RS.html. I am using a 3 bulb DIY fixture with a nema premium ballast for my flowering closets. and am getting better results than with a 6 bulb 24 inch t5ho fixture which I now use in my veg closet. I think you need to do a little more research