I just picked up 4 of thoese 48" Home Depot lights. They all have the good SL15 ballast in them. The thing I noticed with them is that they fit my Perfecto hood, which has two light fixture positions. So I just need to paint them black.
So my question is, when running the F32T8 bulbs (not the T12), is the wattage 32 watts, or do you count them as 40 watts when doing the wpg figure? I've seen some posts on other message boards that says they put out just as much light as a T12. I mean:
Standard T8: 4x32W=128W/90g = 1.4wpg
Standard T12: 4x40W=160W/90g = 1.7wpg
But when I do the 2X ODNO, it becomes:
2XODNO T8: 4x32Wx1.5=192W/90g = 2.1wpg
2XODNO T12: 4x40Wx1.5=240W/90g = 2.7wpg
I'm not looking into doing any high-light plants, nor do I want to get into CO2 at this point. So how do I calculate a T8 for wpg, and should I even bother doing ODNO at this point? I'll probably keep the ballasts just so that I have them if I ever do need them. Should I avoid going into the 2.? wpg arena.