I, Dr. Bulb, am here to add visibility and transparency to lighting technology and the topic today is totally tubular. Â More specifically, should you use T8 or T5 or T5HO linear fluorescent luminaires to light your facility? To put it simply: T5 lighting wins on hype and if 3rd generation, T8 lighting, T8 wins on efficiency.
Believe it or not, while T5 fluorescent lighting is leading technology gets all the hype, high-performance T8 lamps and ballasts are still more efficient. As seen in the chart below, T5s and T5HOs have slightly more lumens per lamp, but have less lumens per watt than high performance T8s. When driven by a program-start ballast, T8s also have a longer life.