I can only speak from actual experience, I have run Epaps, Gavitas Classics and E's , and
Nanolux, although I am just starting out on the
Nanolux's now so I will let you know in a couple months about the actual performance in the rooms. In practical use and application you will not notice any difference between the fixtures and specific lamps but the Epaps did not hit the same numbers in the bags/on the scales and I did not get the same canopy penetration from them as I do the Nano's and Gavi's.
When you put the light meters under the bulbs with the same wattage setting and same distance there is virtually no difference in the foot candle output, there is a very very small difference in the foot candle output in the overlap footprint areas but not enough to really even note. The huge jump is from traditional hoods and bulbs and DE. At 24" from the center of the bulb on a traditional Extrasun or XXXL hood with no glass, a new
Hortilux Super HPS puts out approx 2100-2200 foot candles and at 48" from the center of the bulb on a
Gavita you get 4600-4800 foot candle output, over double the output and twice the distance...the overlaps on the Gavitas where at 4900-5100 foot candles. One other thing, my rooms actually run cooler with the DE style fixtures than they do with the old school sheet metal hoods, my a/c do not cycle near as much as they used to.
