Reddit reviews Eiko 15521-1 F15T8/CW Straight T8 Cool Fluorescent Tube Light Bulb, 18" Long, White

Heh, that's a question on a topic which I've researched plenty, so it'll be a somehow long post.

My reasons for getting grow lights were:

• temperate climate becoming long and cold winter climate in the past years
  
• keep plants growing during winter
  
• start seeds early, before spring
  
  The requirements were quite simple:
  
  
• average initial investment; don't get the cheapest things, but not the most expensive either
  
• maximum light output possible; light output is measured in lumens and you want as much as possible
  
• proper temperature colour; the "shade of white" is important for plants and you want the lights to mimic the sun as much as possible; optimum colour for growth is 6000-6500^o Kelvin, optimum colour for flowering is warmer (2700-3000^o).
  
• cheap operating costs; especially in regard to bulb replacements, they can get very expensive
  
• compact; the lights will be fitted on a shelf in a living area.
  
  So, off to research as mentioned. There are about 5 common (in therms of availability, cost, flexibility, etc) methods of making light for your plants:
  
  
• classic lightbulb
  
  Cheapest choice and the worst possible. Much of the electrical energy is wasted on heat and you don't want a lot of excess heat near your plants. It's also a waste of money considering you'll be running the grow lights for a long time. Colour temperature is too warm for growth.
  
  
• fluorescent tube lights
  
  This is the best option and my choice - reasons follow below.
  
  
• compact fluorescent lights
  
  2nd best choice, especially for a more "compact" setup. You'll have to take care about hight temperatures though, as the ballast is at the base of the bulb it will heat up the surrounding air. Two 18W CFLs in a large box with the lid off increased the temperature by almost 20^o Celsius and you might cook your plants.
  
  
• metal-halide lamps
  
  Definitely a good choice, but for a more industrial setup. They have a high electricity usage and get crazy hot though, ventilation would be definitely required if you use them.
  
  
• LEDs
  
  Cool, new tech which is very interesting. However, good LEDs are still expensive and more complicated to maintain (additional electronics, cooling, etc). Their development will certainly be interesting in the near future.
  
  Good, so it's decided: fluorescent tube lamps. These are the classic white tubes which require a few hundred volts to produce fluorescent light, very common in offices/shops/public lighting/etc. As the voltage required for them to function is much higher than the network voltage, you'll need a ballast to light them up; by all means, try to get the electronic type (expensive, but reliable and more efficient).
  
  Next, it was the fixture choice. Optimum cost/performance ratio is provided by the 4 feet shop fixtures (1.2 meters), something like this. Due to space constraints, I went for the 2 feet version with 2 lamps inside a fixture.
  
  Now for the lamps. There are many formats for fluorescent lamps; most common are T5, T8 and T12. T12 is old and not very good performance-wise. T5 is very good and available in small formats, but expensive as shit and quite rare where I live - therefore, T8 won in the end. They are also very cheap. If you have money to burn, you can buy High Output lamps (marked as HO usually), but money for 1 lamp is usually 2-3 times the price of a regular lamp - not worth it in my opinion.
  
  Ok, now for the small trick. Remember you want as many lumens as possible for your plants to thrive. Since the bought fixtures were quite compact, I did not put 1 fixture per shelf, but instead mounted 2 fixtures on each shelf (giving me 4 lamps/shelf). The trick was not mounting them parallel to the shelf, but joining 2 lamps on their edge and making each a bit slanted (from the side it looks a bit like the roof of a house: instead of -- it's /\ ). Get some quality lamps (I got Philips, about 1200 lumens each; make sure you get the "cool white" type for the 6000-6500^o colour) and you have >4000 lumens per shelf which is quite good.
  
  From reading around, there's no need to complicate life by putting reflective tape or special materials inside the fixture. A good fixture painted white is already more than 90% reflective.
  
  Next problem was the ballast, which was still putting out enough heat to concern me. I cracked open the lamps and moved the ballast outside the lamp fixture, which decreased the air temperature below the lamps by 7-8^o Celsius. It might be the difference between cooking the plants and having them grow :)
  
  The whole thing is placed in an IKEA Gorm shelving unit, very similar to what can be seen here. A metal shelf might have been better in some ways, but wood looks nicer inside the room and decreases the risk of electric shock in case some wire becomes loose. For now, it'll do.
  
  Plants are under lights for about two weeks and seem very happy. Some even started to turn red at the edges (indicating too much light), which didn't happen outside on a balcony shelf. Might have to raise the lights a little, will see how they respond.
  
  So, that's the whole grow light setup. Total cost was ~200-250$, including the shelving unit/lamps/fixtures/cables/accessories. It's definitely more complicated than getting a ready-made fixture (like the LightWave T5) but I like DIY.
  
  Next plans are:
  
  
• get a bigger shelf, of course
  
• try overdriving the lights. Overdriving means increasing the light output of a regular lamp by applying a higher voltage, almost to T5 levels. It shortens the life span of the lamp, but not by much. A starter guide is here.
  
• start more plants :)

Tough to tell from the pic, but it just looks like a normal florescent tube light. There are some limitations, and there are different ones.

Is there any writing on the bulb? or any imprints on the metal ends?