T5 Life Span

[simonbrown403]

Just a quick one how long do T5 tubes last on avarage before they need to be replaced.

 

[zig]

A lot longer than T8s anyway

I would say about 1.5-2 years, some say until they die and others report swapping them out after about a 2 year period and seeing instant pearling, inferring that the tubes had deteriorated quite radically, but this could be just due to the "burn in" period that T5 tubes have, where they burn more intense, after about 100 hours they should reach normal output levels.

You could probably also factor in how many times you auctually switch the tubes on and off, the more you switch them on and off you may reduce the life cycle of the tube, so i have read anyway, dont ask me to prove it.

So my answer would be 1.5 - 2 years minimum for T5s.

 

[George Farmer]

I'm with zig. I'd say at least twice the useful life of T8.

Did you get those 6500Ks I recommended BTW Simon? Any good?

 

[pseud]

Wow. I think I read somewhere that you should replace them every 6 months. I'm glad to learn that I can wait up to two years!

 

[simonbrown403]

Thats good news thanks all .

I still have the original 11000k tubes george.
All is well so i dont have any plans to change them untill i need to.

 

[sub.42]

You could probably also factor in how many times you auctually switch the tubes on and off, the more you switch them on and off you may reduce the life cycle of the tube, so i have read anyway, dont ask me to prove it.

You are right zig,

The more times the heaters are operated from cold, the quicker the tube degrades. I think that I was told after about 500 'heats', they start to go 'off'. After a 1000 'heats', they start to degrade quite rapidly. T5 units don't suffer as much because the heaters are more compact, and more resillient. Lighting technology is moving on, and I'm beginning to see T5 fittings being used instead of T8's in even the most mundane of scenarios.

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