I finally decided to get modern and dumped my old T12 fluorescent grow lights and bought two of the dual 4' T8 shop lights yesterday at Lowes. I bought some 6500k GE lights to go with it and have it over some peppers now. These light fixtures are so much lighter in weight and I like the black color of the fixtures. Not sure if that affects light reflection or not since the hood is small.
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lighting Dumped the T12 lights and bought T8's
- Thread starter Proud Marine Dad
- Start date
These were $14.99 per shop light so I'm not complaining. 
Proud Marine Dad - glad to see your move to T8 bulbs. I hadn't planned on making the move for another year, but 3 of our lights and one ballast bit the dust just last week. You're so right with the lighter weight of the T8s. We'll be thinking about maybe changing to shelves, but . . . . that may be in the distant future. Too many plants every year.
Good deal!Proud Marine Dad said:These were $14.99 per shop light so I'm not complaining.
I got one of my fixtures from work, it had a bent reflector and could not be sold, (it is a $180 fixture) so I got it for free.
The other I bought at Home Depot for $90. The lamps were about $9-10 each, but the amount of light is excellent, I cannot look directly at them without it hurting my eyes.
millworkman
Extreme Member
I'm running over driven t8s. It is impressive the difference.
Will have to look into that!millworkman said:
I have the same fixtures ProudMarineDad. They have been awesome, & the price was cheap. I am going to paint mine flat white after the plants are all outside for next season's plants. It should turn up the light output a bit. They are way sturdier than the $20 white ones that they had.
Good score!
millworkman
Extreme Member
What I've got are the super cheap fixtures that used to house t12s. Then after 4 years of using those I got 4 bulb t8 ballasts and wired them up to run only 2 bulbs. Took the extra ballasts from the t12s and have those dual ballasts running one bulb each. Seriously impressive output compared to normal and not really wasting any equipment.