Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 4/21/2010

Question
I'm growing highland nepenthes in my apartment under a two bulb shop light due to lack of sufficiently lighted windows.  I've discovered my 4 foot shop light can either accept T12 or T8 bulbs.  

The bulbs I found in the store are either 32W, 2800 lumen T8's or 40W, 2200 lumen T12's both with a natural light spectrum.  Which is more important, the wattage or the lumen rating?  I'm assuming lumens but I wanted to check with the experts first.  

I'm growing N. ventricosa, truncata, truncata x alata, maxima and a D capensis.

Answer
Hi Andy,

It's not that simple, but in this particular case, go for lumen. We use wattage in our instructions mainly because that's an easier gauge of light intensity.  People are more familiar with wattage than with lumen.

Keep in mind that using T8 only means that you're getting more lumen per wattage, which helps saves energy.  There are T12 lights that produce 3200 lumen per 40 watts.  While you get more output with this particular T12, the T8 still has more lumen per wattage.  In this case, then you would need to weigh the cost of electricity for the higher lumen output.  

Good growing!
Jacob Farin