48" vs 36", wattage, and output

[Meaven]

i;ve been confused on this for a while. i have a 36" wide terrarium, with 48" lights sitting on top of it. it would be really very nice if i could go out and get some 36" fixtures and put those over it, but 36" bulbs dont have as high of wattage.

does that mean less light? or does that mean that the smaller bulbs take less power to produce the same amount of light as the larger bulbs?

 

[Clint]

They don't have as high of a wattage because they aren't as long. You're wasting light and power with the extra foot of tubing per lamp.

It means that the smaller bulbs use less power to produce less light. A normal output lamp can only produce so much light per length. HO and VHO are another story and require special ballasts. You can run an NO or a HO on a VHO ballast, but you can't run a VHO or an HO on an NO ballast.

When a bulb is rated a certain wattage, that's the power it consumes and not necessarily puts out. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms, so the energy (electricity) a lamp consumes is changed and given off as light and heat.

If you are able to move the endcaps, just move them 36 inches apart instead of 48 and insert a 36 inch lamp. It will overdrive the lamp and thus produce more light (more than if you got a ballast made to power however many lights you are using in a 36 inch length), but they won't last as long.

48 inchers are more efficient for whatever reason... Don't remember. It won't really make a difference with a single fixture.

 

[Meaven]

its more of a space issue actually. that, and i'm working on buying a 48" tank, and dont want to lose use of my 36.

 

[joe002]

Meaven – Hi. I’ve been doing a little research on lighting a 36” width too, and it’s a lot harder then 48”, but I did found some dual 36” T8 strip lights. I purchased two of these (specifically designed with an electronic ballast for 25W T8 bulbs) to give me four tubes. I also found some 36” T8 bulbs that use 25W each and put out 2,000 lumens at 6,500K. With 4 tubes that’s about 8,000 lumens of 6,500K lights for 100W of energy.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

You should look into those 65w and 100w 6500k CF fluorescent fixtures Home Depot sells from Lights of America. They are compact, have a nice reflector etc and put out alot of light. You do however need to wire a cord to it and block the photo sensor on it since they are designed for night time area lighting.

Tony