Pricey for sure, I don't see the savings here compared to T5HO. Plug & Play is all well & good, but if you're using the existing ballast(s) in your fixture, the electrical consumption may well be higher than the actual rating of the LED tube and who's to say it will last for the advertised number of years. Some kind of driver has to be built into the tube to convert the power the ballast is pumping out to a level the LEDs can handle, meaning electronics that are not repairable which could fail at any time. Not trying to be too negative here, just asking some questions before paying that kind of money just because it fits into an existing fixture. May be better off paying for a designed for LED fixture.
Having said that, I've purchased two 2 packs of PNP T8/T12 LED tubes & stuck them into old fluorescent fixtures I have in the basement & kitchen. I must say they work great, brighter than the old gas tubes. But the 2 packs cost less than $30 each at Costco in Kelowna. Not for aquarium, but same technology, fairly cool colour temperature. You're considering spending more than $70 on a single tube, I have 4 for $60. Might want to wait a bit to see if there will be some competition in the future to bring the price down on LED tubes for our hobby.
Something I might do is put a watt meter on the fixtures I've put the LED tubes into to confirm how much power I'm saving as opposed to when the gas tubes were in there.
Last edited by mike31154; 02-01-2016 at 05:30 AM.
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