72" t5 bulbs

[Fireworks]

I have found on Ebay, a 72" light fixture that has 8-80 watt t5 bulbs.Does anyone have any experience with such a fixture? I have never seen bulbs that long in any store and am concerned about availability of replacements. Also, is there any real power consumption savings compared to an equivilent metal halide system?

 

[melosu58]

Moved to General Hardware and equipment discussion forum.

 

[CaptainAhab]

ebay link?

 

[ccCapt]

80w T5HO bulbs are 5' long, so they are probably offset in the fixture to get full coverage. They are easy to find online, but you may have a hard time getting them locally.

As far as power consumption, a watt is a watt. That fixture has 640 watts. It will use more electricty than a fixture with 3 175w MH (525w), but less than a fixture with 3 250w MH (750w).