Hi all. I have 2 1000w hps but i notice alot of the light is being absorbed into the brown paneling on the wall. Is it better to use mirrors to reflect the light or aluminum? Any suggestions on the best stuff to use?
mirrors suck, aluminum is better. to get the most from those lights i would paint the walls a flat white or get some mylar.
Yes. I picked up some aluminum moisture shield for houses. It says "reflective" so i will try that. One other quick question, will it make much of a difference if i leave the lights on for 24 hours instead of 18. Besides the powerbill. lol
These are rough numbers but they give you an idea what your dealing with in terms of light reflection over a dispersed pattern: Mylar=90-97% reflective Flat White Paint=80-90% reflective Emergency Blankets=75-80% reflective Tinfoil=70-75% reflective Mirror= 60-70% reflective (it's just thin tinfoil behind glass, due to refraction in glass has lower reflective properties than just plain old tin foil)
That was great. That info really makes it simple. Thanks VokaL420 for the help. Wow, did my fonts get messed up or what.
I use hardboard with a white coating and it seems to work ok. As for 24 hours on, I'm coming to the end of my first grow now but when I tried it for a wek, everything stopped growing. When I went back to 18/6 the growth re-started again. It's just like they need a rest and looking at many of the threads here, it does seem that the plants grow as much in the dark as they do in the light.
Thanks vokal, ive been looking for that for a few days, couldnt find it. But i could have sworn that foil was only 53% reflective..could be wrong though. Foil creates hot spots on the plant that could burn leaves... that wouldnt be good. If you use tin foil, use it dull side out. But i would reccomend flat white paint. Its cheap and easy to find. Mylar would be great, but not everyone can get it. Goodluck sir.
Yah mylar kicks ass, I got a large roll ar my local grow supply store. They had it in differnt thickness. If I wasnt using mylar I would use flat white posterboard, or simply paint my walls flat white.
Mylar is just a little to expensive for me. I stick with flat white paint.. isnt it cheap in differnt thickness?
Yah, the thinner it is the cheaper it is. You can buy it so thin that that 1% of light that is lost shines through. Fun stuff. White paint cheap and readily available.