There are so many different kinds of T5 lights out there. I was looking at the store and the guy had some new ones he said they were high output and provided like double the lumens of the other T5 lights he had. They were $280 out the door and was wondering what different kinds of T5's there are and their lumen output / wattage usage and what is a standard price for top of the line stuff
What you were looking at was a T5HO fixture. It does have nearly double the output of a regular T5 fixture but the efficiency suffers as a result. If you are looking at $250 fixtures - you should be looking at HID lighting. I picked up a nice kit (600W Dual lamp ballast, cool tube hood with reflector, MH and HPS lamps, basic timer, etc) for less than $250. Will perform WAY better than T5. FYI: Lumens depend on the lamps used. If you want to know how many lumens you'll have with your fixture you need to decide which lamps you plan to use and read the specs for the lamps.
Well obviously if I went with a hood, metal hallide, i would get better output. I'm not trying to have a full blown veg room here so with the T5 I can let em sit with a fan, no cooling the hood, no cooling or venting the room.