On Friday, October 16, 2020 at 9:29:55 PM UTC-5, Clare Snyder wrote:

When the ballasts start to fail you will see where replacing
flourescents doesn't make sense.
ANd a 4 foot T5 is optimistically 2900 lumens - nowhere close to
5000. Half that light goes up, requiring a reflector to direct it back
down while a good led light focusses ALL of it's 2000 lumens down
where it does you the most good. I've found replacing 4 tube
luminaires with 2 "tube" LEDs gives better visability.

I don't know what I'll do when things start to fail. When I put the T5 HO's in service, the LED availability and cost was nearly as competitive as it is now. What we don't know is how long will LED fixtures really last. Early LED bulbs had life claims that I think were vapor. I paid very high prices for name brand LED bulbs. Most of them died after two years service. I bought some cheap Chinese LEDs and they lasted 6 months. I've used CREE and Phillips and Home depot bulbs. The home depot bulbs have lasted the best but they are starting to fail after 3 years. None of them have come close to the claimed life. CREE happily replaces their bulbs at no charge with free shipping, but that still doesn't cover the aggravation.

Maybe the LED tubes will hold up better. Let's all check back with each other in five years. One of the things that bugs me about LED bulbs is that they have electronics on board and I suspect that's the weakest link, not the actual LED itself.

Bob