Low-tech planted tank lighting

[Sploke]

I have a stack of old ones that I've been using for various stuff, mostly basement/garage lighting. They are all 10+ years old and need new ballasts (and most of them are the antiquated and less-efficient magnetic ballasts to boot). I've found its a lot less hassle to just buy new ones than buying and replacing ballasts, and really not much more expensive.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I have a stack of old ones that I've been using for various stuff, mostly basement/garage lighting. They are all 10+ years old and need new ballasts (and most of them are the antiquated and less-efficient magnetic ballasts to boot). I've found its a lot less hassle to just buy new ones than buying and replacing ballasts, and really not much more expensive.

It's just not worth it to replace ballasts anymore. New "energy efficient" electronic ballasts are garbage, as are the majority of fluorescent lamps. None of it is made like it used to be and will have a fraction of the lifespan of older stuff.

 

[the loach]

The problem with LEDs is that they don't have a lower power consumption as T8 fluorescents. You can check this by yourself by comparing Lumens per Watt. But manufacturers know this so most of them don't give any specifications on Watt, Lumen, CRI, temperature.

What I wrote here is at least partially incorrect. I calculated this with 36w T8's. It turns out smaller T8's like 15w and 18w are far less efficient, and can be easily matched by Leds in Lumens per Watt, even exceeded.

Yes all of them claim "lower power consumption". But you're also getting at least equally less Lumens.

Especially true with T8 Led replacements. I see no benefit to this at all; it would be much better and cheaper to just stick a good led strip to a broken fixture.