what to do with old light bulbs??

[Orient Master]

I was just wondering what does everyone do with their old lightbulbs.

I keep reading that the light output will be insuficent for the aquarium after a set time of being on. not to say that to bulb still doesnt put out some light. just not enough for the fish to thrive.

Not like the light busting or not.

I was wondering even if the bulb is still putting out light what does someone do with it. just trash it?

Why cant you use say like the t-5 lights and get some of these cheap fixtures and run the bulbs in your house, garage, workshop, or wetroom.

say for example..... my 24" HO t-5s i have will someday go past their life, and i will need to replace them. But the bulb will still be putting out light. why cant i get one of these other "sun blaze" fixtures or "Helios" fixtures and just mount these like under cabinet lights in the kitchen. or inside cabinets, or closets.

Heck most house incadesent bulbs use what 40, 60, 100 watts. these lights use 24 watts. that seams like money in the pocket to me. more light less electric bill.

well thats my thought about these old bulbs. Just a thought.
Whats your thoughts on this????

[tims]

i dont see why you could not use the fixture and bulb in the the kitchen or garage, but they may not be giving off enough light for what you want to do / see.

[Loverotties]

Wouldn't you need to change the ballast to run them?You'ld have to see if the ballast excepts it.

[Orient Master]

Originally Posted by tims

i dont see why you could not use the fixture and bulb in the the kitchen or garage, but they may not be giving off enough light for what you want to do / see.

Well that is pretty much what my question was about. because i haven't had one of these bulbs reach the end of its recamended life so i dont know how much light comes out of them at that time. because i know just regular t-12 shop lights can last quite a long time (talking about years). and they say you should only use the t-5 HO's for maybe a year. so what about like the rest of the years that they still put out light

Originally Posted by Loverotties

Wouldn't you need to change the ballast to run them?You'ld have to see if the ballast excepts it.

I'm talking about using fixtures that have HO balasts in them so i would know that the fixture could handle the bulbs.

[jerseyguy1996]

I'm sure that there is no reason you couldn't use them for other applications. People will typically use flourescent bulbs to light a room until they start to flicker and then they will change them. It isn't as if we need to worry about the par rating and color spectrum if we are just lighting our kitchen counter top to make biscuits :-)