What Reflective Materials Can I Use For My Grow Room?
- Thread starter SmokeyMacPot
- Start date
Canresearcher
Well-Known Member
I would stay away from mirrors as they tend to reflect in the wrong way and create hot spots...
what you are after is a textured surface to evenly distribute (diffuse) the light over the plants, hence why you see lots of reflective material that is slightly textured. White reflective plastic film (B&W) works fine too..
what you are after is a textured surface to evenly distribute (diffuse) the light over the plants, hence why you see lots of reflective material that is slightly textured. White reflective plastic film (B&W) works fine too..
Ahhh ok that explains why foylon looks textured in the pictures. Thanks
Rider509
Well-Known Member
Either hexavalent chromium or trivalent chromium may be used to produce chrome. The electroplating chemicals for both processes are toxic and regulated in many countries. Hexavalent chromium is extremely toxic, so trivalent chrome or tri-chrome tends to be more popular for modern applications.
In my limited experience I've found that quadavalent chrome is the best option for painting grow room walls.
Rider509
Well-Known Member
Ok, being serious, I've been looking at Orca as an option for an existing greenhouse tent that I have. It has excellent reflective properties.
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williamreive
New Member
Either use reflective Mylar or paint your walls completely white or if you are extremely broke use the less shiny side of tin foil (not suggested)
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Erinmore69
New Member
I've got a big stainless steel insulated box. based on Thermal & Solar Reflectance of Stainless Steel article, I think I would be in great shape to use it...
LEDBud
Well-Known Member
I use a few sheets of black and white Tyvek house wrap to hang in the tent to tighten the light footprint.
Its breathable 98% light proof and durable folds up small and is a only a few percentages less reflective then Mylar
Its breathable 98% light proof and durable folds up small and is a only a few percentages less reflective then Mylar
bobsacamano
New Member
i'm new here too! mirrors are surprising not as reflective as you would think--they don't reflect light in particular very well, plus they create hot spots.
bobsacamano
New Member
hello. i'm new here but i came across i question i could answer so i jumped in....
Reflectix is what i use. available at any home improvement store. i've been recommending it ever since i discovered it...it's cheap, rigid but pliable, reflective, insulating, can be cut w/scissors, etc. i have never used foil or mylar but reflectix would be a definite upgrade over either of those. plus i've heard that mylar is hard to keep clean. and loses its reflectivity if it gets wet. also reflectix has a textured surface, which gives you much higher, better reflectivity and eradicates hot spots.
Reflectix is what i use. available at any home improvement store. i've been recommending it ever since i discovered it...it's cheap, rigid but pliable, reflective, insulating, can be cut w/scissors, etc. i have never used foil or mylar but reflectix would be a definite upgrade over either of those. plus i've heard that mylar is hard to keep clean. and loses its reflectivity if it gets wet. also reflectix has a textured surface, which gives you much higher, better reflectivity and eradicates hot spots.
Hmm interesting.
I want to see a grow doene using this material. Can you provide that for me and the rest here as if its better then all the rest... this will be awesome.
Plz show pics of grow thks.
A Licenced Medicinal Cannabis User
That article appears (to me) to be discussing heat/IR energy reflectance more than general visible light reflectance. Which is, perhaps, not surprising because that website is Contrarian Metal Resources' - and that is a commercial entity which sells stainless steel for roofing applications (among other SS/titanium products, but as the roofing products are mentioned first on the main web page, might be their "primary" product line (IDK)). In regards to such an application, gross light reflectively characteristics would presumably be of far less importance than the product's ability to reflect radiant heat.
Having read a bit about SS and its (light-)reflectivity characteristics in the past, the main impression that I got was that...
...it's complicated, lol. SS can appear to be perfectly smooth and still be relatively rough when viewed under strong magnification. There have even been issues due to this; as an example, chemical tank inspections... when diffused light was used, the surfaces appeared to be smooth and polished - however, when a non-diffused ("point") source was used, the imperfections were discernible. Simply by changing the type of light source, one perceived different reflectivity characteristics. And while my use of the term "perceived" in the previous sentence is probably technically correct, in practical terms the material would probably appear to behave differently depending on whether or not a hard light source was used, methinks. Although one might not be able to see such things with the human eyeball, it is probably a safe assumption that one's plants would, lol. Just like how an aged HID bulb may be performing 10% or even 20% less than when new and still look as bright to our eyes.
I do not have any good reference links handy to support this statement, but: I believe that, in general, surfaces that have good reflectivity characteristics, but also reflect that light in a more diffuse fashion, are best.
You already have the box. If I were in your place, I might go ahead and use it. It would probably be good at keeping heat from escaping - or entering - the grow through the structure's walls/ceiling/floor. But I'd probably grab an appropriate SS primer, apply it, and then apply two coats of flat white paint. Sure, the bare SS would be easier to clean. But I'd think that this would be less important than the surface's ability to reflect the light that the plants need (YMMV, of course).
I like Tyvek in general. I did not know that it was said to be 98% light-proof. Does this mean that if one shines a 400-watt HID light source at it from a close distance, that only eight watts' of light (or 2% of the amount of light that the HID actually produces, I suppose
) would pass through it? IF so, I may have to investigate...Maybe not all that surprising if you think about it. A mirror is basically just a piece of glass with a somewhat reflective surface directly behind it. (NOTE: $30,000,000 mirrors manufactured out of gold for the purpose of telescopes - and other special-purpose mirrors of comparable quality - would, for all intents and purposes, be considered a completely different animal, lol.) First, the actual reflective surface of a general-purpose mirror need not even be all that reflective; the surface of a reasonably calm body of water makes a passable mirror, and (obviously) not all of the light that reaches water is reflected back. Second, remember the glass - it is highly unlikely to be of superb quality (that would be a waste of the manufacturer's money) because the application does not require it. When light passes through glass, some of it is effectively "lost." IIRC, something like 9% of it in one pass. The light then hits the reflective surface and has to pass through the glass again. Therefore, only about 82.8% of the light would be reflected (and that is probably a best-case figure).
I've used it before. To be honest, the reasons were mainly that I'm poor and lazy, lol. Paint and primer is relatively cheap (even the good stuff) for this use - but a person can sometimes get (a little bit of) the duct insulation free for the asking at home/etc. construction sites if there isn't a great deal left on the roll when they've finished installing it.
I don't think it's the greatest (light) reflector, though. It's more durable than aluminum foil, but so is paint (IMHO). Reflectix might be less likely to produce "hot spots" than foil, IDK. In nonscientific testing - IOW, successive runs where I changed the wall surfaces, but could not guarantee that every single other detail was exactly the same (although I did make the attempt to change as little as possible) - I felt that harvest numbers were larger with walls that were in good repair and painted white.
There's also this, which may or may not be significant to you: The company advertises (or at least has until recently; I didn't check before typing this) the product to have an R-value of around 4.2. That comes from a decades old test that was an assembly test (as opposed to a materials test). They advertise that so much that at least one state which specifies an R-value of 8 lists two layers of the product as being adequate :rolleyes3 . The best-case scenario for the product requires (lots of) ¾" spacers - and much more labor, and a larger path for the duct runs - and is pretty uncommon in practice. The actual product, by itself, applied directly to ducts (most common application method), has an R-value of... only 1.08. I'd consider this to be a case of, if not false, at least misleading advertising. And I try not to support companies who view such things as a valid method of profiting from its customers. So, yeah... If I'm poor and feeling lazy, I might ask if I can have some "scraps" that would end up in a dumpster anyway for free (and even an R-value of 1 can be helpful if one is looking for free insulation) - but I wouldn't actually purchase the stuff.
It's like this: Whatever your light source is (assuming it is artificial), you are paying for it each month by way of your electric bill. However much light you're paying for each month... That is the maximum that can possibly reach your plants. That maximum is, of course, theoretical and impossible to attain in the real world. You're always going to have some losses. Just like your automobile's engine produces n torque, maximum, at the crank - but measurably less at the wheels due to driveline losses. That is unavoidable, too... But the additional loss due to sloppy/worn parts IS avoidable. The owner of an automobile which is in a poor state is then paying (in fuel costs) for power that he/she is not receiving.
I'm just rambling on (and on)... I favor paint. If you don't like to clean it (and flat paint isn't really something you can scrub without damage), don't spray stuff on your walls, lol, and spend a few hours (counting drying time) repainting in between harvests as part of the regular cleaning/sanitizing process. If you feel you must, go with a more durable/cleanable finish than flat (no, not gloss).
LEDBud
Well-Known Member
I checked on its opacity and it is 92% not 98% as I wrote
Tyvek is in a class by itself when it comes to its high performance durable and price point.
I first read of its use in a Aerospace article where it mentioned its high reflectively properties.
A few years ago for a 2x4x6 cabinets door I hung a sheet of black and white Tyvek and at night could only see a glow right next to the led panels.
Studies at duke university have been conducted on the transmittivity of Tyvek and the results have been found to
be consistent with DuPont’s value for the opacity of Tyvek, which is 92%.
In the Product Handbook,DuPont states that Tyvek returns a higher result in the GE Brightness test than pure titanium particles
A closer look at Tyvek reveals that the material may not reflect light in a perfectly Lambertian fashion.
By shining a laser pointer on Tyvek it is possible to see that some of the light is reflected from the Tyvek
in a preferred direction dependent on the direction of the incident light, very much like headlights reflect-
ing from the asphalt. Clearly, it is not possible to see one’s face while staring at Tyvek, which suggests
that this component is relatively small, yet it might be an important characteristic of the reflectivity of
Tyvek.
Some photons may be specularly reflected from the surface of the surface fibers straight back into the
medium (as opposed to being refracted and scattered within the material). Still, due to the irregular
surface of the Tyvek we still expect these photons to be somewhat scattered and, therefore, some diffused
specular reflection is expected from the Tyvek
I copied this from a cargo tarp manufacturers website :
Metallized bubble wrap covers better reflect solar energy than the film based wraps, but are only about half as effective as Tyvek® covers at reflecting in the UV and visible spectrums, which represents the major of the energy contained in solar energy at sea level.
Tyvek® Cargo Covers reflect nearly all energy in the UV and visible spectrums and maintain the load temperature at 1*C above ambient temperature – the only cover to effectively negate the adverse effects of solar radiation.
Tyvek is in a class by itself when it comes to its high performance durable and price point.
I first read of its use in a Aerospace article where it mentioned its high reflectively properties.
A few years ago for a 2x4x6 cabinets door I hung a sheet of black and white Tyvek and at night could only see a glow right next to the led panels.
Studies at duke university have been conducted on the transmittivity of Tyvek and the results have been found to
be consistent with DuPont’s value for the opacity of Tyvek, which is 92%.
In the Product Handbook,DuPont states that Tyvek returns a higher result in the GE Brightness test than pure titanium particles
A closer look at Tyvek reveals that the material may not reflect light in a perfectly Lambertian fashion.
By shining a laser pointer on Tyvek it is possible to see that some of the light is reflected from the Tyvek
in a preferred direction dependent on the direction of the incident light, very much like headlights reflect-
ing from the asphalt. Clearly, it is not possible to see one’s face while staring at Tyvek, which suggests
that this component is relatively small, yet it might be an important characteristic of the reflectivity of
Tyvek.
Some photons may be specularly reflected from the surface of the surface fibers straight back into the
medium (as opposed to being refracted and scattered within the material). Still, due to the irregular
surface of the Tyvek we still expect these photons to be somewhat scattered and, therefore, some diffused
specular reflection is expected from the Tyvek
I copied this from a cargo tarp manufacturers website :
Metallized bubble wrap covers better reflect solar energy than the film based wraps, but are only about half as effective as Tyvek® covers at reflecting in the UV and visible spectrums, which represents the major of the energy contained in solar energy at sea level.
Tyvek® Cargo Covers reflect nearly all energy in the UV and visible spectrums and maintain the load temperature at 1*C above ambient temperature – the only cover to effectively negate the adverse effects of solar radiation.
bobsacamano
New Member
actually i did not say it was better than "all the rest"...said it was better than mylar or foil. no need for pics on that claim...the fact that it is textured means automatically/necessarily it will be more reflective than any non-textured surface (or so i'm given to understand if i understand 'textured' and 'reflectivity' correctly.)
Well i would love to see a grow journal on it beforw i ever bought such a material.
A Licenced Medicinal Cannabis User
bobsacamano
New Member
i'm pretty sure Tead has it in his growspace. or at least what he uses looks just like Reflectix.
I don't believe it's all that uncommon. Lots of journals that I've ghosted through seemed to have it. Try skimming through the first few pages (depending on how many posts per page you have set to display in your User CP options) of several journal threads and you'll probably see at least one that uses it.
I'm not real clear on what you mean. Taken alone, your statement appears to be somewhat... Well, the average blacktop/asphalt/tarmac road surface is much more textured than a flat white wall - or most any of the things that have been discussed in this thread - yet I wouldn't put any money on the road surface being a better grow room surface than any of them, lol. Can you elaborate?
bobsacamano
New Member
i meant, of course, all other things being equal, and given that we are talking about reflectivity and surfaces, then, any textured surface will be more reflective than it's nontextured counterpart. if that's not true then i simply do not understand reflectivity yet thought i did.
LEDBud
Well-Known Member
A irregular surface will diffuse the light preventing hot spots that could potentially burn a plants leaves , although I have never had reflection burn on the leaves others have reported it when using HID lights
