DGP
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When I started looking for thermal data on T-5 HO (54W) bulbs I could not find anything that described the thermal characteristics of T-5's. In other words, for a given power rating (54W) how much heat was added to the room from natural convection, from radiation and the inefficiencies of the electrical system (ballasts). I have read a number of articles and read some grow logs that seem to indicate high quality T-5 HO's can keep up with HPS with a lower overall heat load. I don't know, I am just experimenting.
I have seen so many arguments about how hot each type of lampo runs how efficient each one is but I just wanted to gather some real data and just see what they do one against the other in the same room with the same boundery conditions.
So, I have a room that is in a garage and is insulated top and sides to R11. The floor is concrete. It has a mini-split A/C unit in it. I used a 600W HPS on a light mover for the last grow but my A/C costs were real painful. So when SUmmer came I moved a group of girls outside in an enclosed locked area.
So, I ran an experiement running one fixture in the room and seeing how much that volume of air would heat up with no supplementary cooling. I used a commercial T-5 for my first run and it came out that with ballast inefficiencies etc there temperature rise was 2.5 to 3 degrees F per bulb.
Now I am re-running the test with Bad Boy T-5 fixtures to see if their claim of 30% efficiency gains are true.
I will also be running the same experiment with my 600 w HPS. I wanted to know for each watt consumed how much does a given lamp tecnology give you in heat increase per per cubic foot. The idea is to compare similar power levels. My 600 watt HPS is being compared to two 8 bulb T-5 fixtures which is more like 900 watts total.
The one good thing I see about T-5's is the light is distributed much more evenly over the 4 foot space and the reflectors on the bad boys seem very high quality. The HPS seems alot more point source and varies more over the area being lit.
I will post the graphs once they are done.
So far the rough data is:
Cheapo T-5 fixture: Raised the room temperature 3 degrees F per bulb or about .008 degees per cubic foot
The Bad Boys are running about: 1.25 to 1.5 Degrees F per bulb or about .004 degrees per cubic foot
The goal is to run the Fall, Winter and Spring grows during the cold weather and see if we can do it without any A/C or mybe rarely used A/C. My other hope is the heat from the bad Boys will be useful in the cooler months instead of having to run heaters as well.
This is with no A/C and no active venting.
DP
This will be a fun thread to read. I like data and it seems you will be providing some. Good luck on your endeavors.Thanks for the response and information. Yes, I have a kill-a-watt meter on the fixtures. Each is drawing 430 watts. My point of comparison is heat per tube right now between the 2 T5 systems. then when I compare HPS to T-5 it will be more challenging because the light sources are so physically different. Also, my next step is to turn on some ventilation. The first test was without vents just to calculate the true heat load. The first question was just how much heat is created since I know the lumen output of an HO T5 system. Of course the light values are at different distances. However, what I like about the T5's like I said before is their more even distribution of light vs. a more point source type of bulb.
One o fthe experts I have advising me has pointed out that often people try to use too much light. An example would be blasting small plants with a 1000 watt HPS when they don't need that much light til much later in their life. I think this is due to everyone thinking they need that next great 1,000 watt double ended bulb. His theory is if you give a plant more than 100% of the light they need they stop growing. so why burn a ton of electricity during phases of development that don't require it?
BTW, I have experience in lighting design and thermal analysis but I am only on my 3rd grow and have a lot to learn. In the cannabis equipment world hype seems to be king but I like data. If t5's are useful for more than just vegging (and I think they are) then I want to understand them as another tool in the grow. Are the Quantum Bad Boys really great? A lot of reading I have done say they are better than many other T5 systems but I want the real data in my real situation.
I have also studied LED's and the jury still seems to be out. Many of them are very small and because of the way LED's distribute light the footprint is very samll on many of them. The onlt system I see out there right now that attempts to solve this is Spydr and spydrX models. However, they start at $900 and go into the thousands.
My goals are to:
1. Find a way to cool the room with less energy and still get decent yields. Can I use HPS during the cold months especially for the last part of flower when more light power may be the most useful? Maybe that would be more efficient.....
2. Compare the two T5 systems to find out if the 30% more efficient claim Quantum makes is measurable and real
3. Learn about growing with T5's in flower
If I know exactly how much each light source makes in wasted heat (at least it isn't wasted in the Winter if it is fairly cold outside) I can do an actual thermal simulation and change various varibles like location of inlets vs. outlets for vents, various vent inlet temperatures and what the limits are (when to vent from the outside and when not to etc.).
Thanks,
DP
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