I've read alot on here as of recent about whats the best and how bad mirrors are, how they absorb light, or throw diffused light, which in turn can hurt your plants, with spots and edge burning. Well while all this is true, it also has dawned on me how it is extrodenary to use in some ways, the mirrors that is.
I always had the hardest time shack the nack in me that wanted to use mirrors. It's a perfect refective image of anything light including.
Regardless, while viewing post on here on contributer was talking about fused light being the problem. And as I got thinking it dawned on me how the flouresnt light was already evenly diffuced over the tube surface, but Like and HID has a pin point burning where the light transmitts from, So. Mirrors with strickly flouresnt is the best, and probably undiscoved potental for high light intensity, but with the HIDs your just getting an exact image of each feild of light and strength of light with in fields, from the lowest to the bright as the sun spot. Which of course it too much.
Anyways, I'm up too late, and just wanted to say that. Thanks for listening.

dont know much about it but if your right , thats pretty cool , and DIY projects just got a little more interesting haha

I was under the impression mirrors only reflect a certain percentage of light, diffused or not... and that regular flat white was better (with mylar/foylon(sp?) being the best).

Give it a try, I guess, but flourescents aren't anything new and I'd be kind of surprised if that was the case.

mirrors absorbe light and reflect heat. they don't work for a reflector.

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I myself use mirrors and they seem to work fine

mirrors cant absorb light. if they did that then they wouldnt reflect! when u send a signal by mirror ur not reflecting the heat ur reflecting the light. u will reflect a certain amount of heat but it would have to be relativly close to the object(plant ) try putting ur light next to ur mirror and give it a few minutes and then hold ur hand at the distance away from mirror that ur plant would be at . if it burns you i'd be very surprised. same principle as when ur adjusting your lights. maybe concave/convex mirrors would react different, ie diffuse with concave and pinpoint with convex. but as we're talking lights then heat is always a by product however minute.

Mirrors most certainly do absorb light. It is then converted to heat energy. There are dialectic mirrors that offer up to 99% reflectivity but they cost thousands of dollars a pop and most probably aren't what this guy is using.

Stop spreading misinformation. Aluminum foil is more reflective and less dangerous than mirrors for fuck's sake.

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Have you ever looked at the reflectors for lights in stores? Notice how all of them are either some polished aluminum, or white? Notice how they are not mirrors?

Well, if you look at a ray of light hitting a mirror, it has to go through glass, hit the reflective material then go through the glass again. Each time it does this, there is some energy loss. If we took, for instance, a white wall, the ray of light goes through the air, and reflects off the wall. There is minimal energy loss. Same goes with mylar and aluminum.

If you took mylar and a mirror, and look at your reflection, you can notice that the mylar reflection will look brighter. I dont know if it was just me being stoned.

Without getting into too much detail, that is how a white wall CAN reflect more light then a mirror.

personaly i would just paint surface white or get mylar .both cheap and u cant really fuckin smash them. problem sorted. and as for white pain i'd use water based, less toxic shit and wont smell as bad when it heats up, unlike oil based.

My room is lined with white coroplast board, so im going white now. although I still think a giant phototoron made with shop lights, wall mirrors, and a couple of cfls on a pully for the top under a hydro grow would grow a killer plant.