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Originally Posted by Wasserpest
Does the WH7 really get hot? I wouldn't have expected that, especially with 28W (?) bulbs. I am planning to mount mine outside of the canopy, in the back (invisible).
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It gets pretty hot. For interest's sake, I'm going to drop a jar of water on top of it and check the temperature in a few hours.. We shall see how hot it really is. If you left your hand sitting on there for a while you could certainly burn yourself (a bit), but it's certainly not going to do too much damage. If you mount it on a piece of metal and just let it breathe a bit (ie. don't trap it inside a sealed hobby box) you have nothing to worry about.
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Originally Posted by Wasserpest
I used to be a firm believer that 1 Watt fluorescent light = 1 Watt fluorescent light, boy was I wrong. I will replace all of my T8's except for one pink "grow light" (Florasun) with T5's, it is a big difference.
I wonder if I could drive both T5 and T8 bulbs from the same ballast... have to try that.
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I was sold on T5 the second I dropped an unreflected T5 fixture beside an unreflected T12 fixture in the store. One tube each and you can see plainly how much more light is coming from the T5. With decent reflection it's that much better.
I see no reason why you can't drive both types of bulbs. In essense, you're running 4 separate 54W ballasts so you ought to be able to run any combo you like. I know some people caution you not to mix bulbs in a ballast but I've yet to see them back it up. Perhaps the higher wattage bulbs will simply wear out the ballast quicker than the smaller?
I tested mine with a 4' T5 and a 1' T5 when I first got the ballast and was playing - worked fine.