the reflection of light from an evenly textured surface, like the pebbled aluminum, will evenly reflect light. aluminum foil, because it's smooth and prone to wrinkling, the hard/uneven angles of the wrinkles will cause light to reflect at odd angles and unevenly, thus causing hotspots. it's not the material that matters, it's the surface texture
Marijuana Plants and Aluminum foil. your opinion?
- Thread starter DJAJGROWSTOO
- Start date
LOL!! Seriously? I'm sorry, I can't stop chuckling!!
Do you really believe that German aluminum polishes out to be more reflective than anyone elses aluminum?
Don't be so naive. You've fallen for a sales pitch.
And because you fell for the BS and believe it, you're now passing on faulty, opinionated "advice" to others. Not cool.
ALL HID LIGHT ALUMINUM HOODS/REFLECTORS REFLECT NOT JUST THE LIGHT TOWARD THE PLANTS, BUT ALSO ALL OF THE HEAT.
And they concentrate it onto a single relatively small area.
Place your hand above your reflector. It'll be nice and cool.
Now place your hand under the reflector. Um humm, hot isn't it?
All that heat is being focused directly at your plants.
Move the light too close and whammo! Burned plants.
But noooooooooo! It wasn't the gardeners fault, it was the light that caused the burns........... or the mythical hotspots.......... or the moon was out of phase with Jupiter.....
If someones space is getting so hot that the adhesive begins to de-gas, the adhesive isn't the problem.
Tell that to NASA and the Hubble Telescope reflector manufacturers.
And just so people know, pebbled aluminum is just a gimmick.
DJAJGROWSTOO
Active Member
I made thread to get the information out on a-foil. and hear if people do use or not.
crazyhazey
Well-Known Member
oh i get it now, if your not having problems no need to switch your method.
and how do people complicate this so much, use mylar or white paint aluminum gives off heat
I hate to do this to you, but Mylar reflects something like 98% of heat back into the grow space.
It doesn't matter if it's 1mil or 3mil. It's all the same.
That's why it's used to make the Emergency blankets. To prevent or at least diminish heat loss.
Sort of the whole reason for using a blanket.
DJAJGROWSTOO
Active Member
This being said by Master Rj41. im just going to leave the foil up on my walls until i do see some kind of signs of heat stroke or burn spots. i did take the reflector i made out from over the top of my lights . but imma just leave it cause i had a seedling pop yesterday morning and its loving the new lights i put up
also check out my grow at https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/517577-my-first-indoor-cfl-grow.html
crazyhazey
Well-Known Member
fuck mylar then ive always used white paint and i've had zero problems, mylars only 3% more reflective than flat white. you guys over complicate the shit out of reflectors, who cares its not like your gonna see a change in yield because you used mylar over white paint. if your trying to make money off this do the cheapest thing you can do and paint your box
kpmarine
Well-Known Member
I doubt I could manage to burn something with the sun and some aluminum foil, much less using a grow light.
their reflectors are to optimize clarity, not diffuse light evenly.... aluminum is aluminum. there are better ways of creating a better reflecting sheet of it, but it's still aluminum
you never made one of those box-oven things in elementary school? you can definitely burn some stuff up pretty good with one. personally, i would never use aluminum foil. small scale, it's much easier to use flat white spray paint. and large scale...well i couldn't imagine using an aluminum foil hood on an hid lamp...
DJAJGROWSTOO
Active Member
ok so i do have white glad trash bags in my house. they seem to be pretty shiny. i can line the walls with them. its thick plastic. would this work like white paint or no?
kpmarine
Well-Known Member
I'd use paint or panda plastic if you go the white route.
DJAJGROWSTOO
Active Member
well if i dont open the bags and just leave them closed. they are thick would this be better then a-foil?
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
Aluminum foil is approx 55% reflective. German aluminum can be 95% reflective. The pebbled surface does indeed help to make a more even distribution of light. It doesn't get very hot under my 600w hps with german aluminum reflector because I cool my hood. Of course if I didn't cool my hood it would get hotter under there, because as you said aluminum reflects heat, which is the point. With aluminum foil you only reflect 55% of the light, and over 90% of the heat. With german aluminum you reflect the heat and light equally. It's not BS. It's fact, and you are misinformed.
kpmarine
Well-Known Member
I think that the point was that just because it's German, does not make it better. It's not point of origin, it's design and workmanship. Also, every bump is a 180 degree reflector essentially. Wouldn't that result in light getting sent places where it wont be used? How do the bumps make for a superior reflector as opposed to a flat equivalent?
Heh heh, I expected this......
I'm not here to debate you, I'm here to inform you.
I think you should know, I worked in an optical lab for several years.
I know all about light reflection and refraction, etc., etc.
The information you've been told is incorrect.
Those dimples you're referring to are concave surfaces.
Concave surfaces focus light into pinpoints.
When there's hundreds of concave surfaces receiving light from many different angles, any light reflected gets scattered as focused beams in all different directions.
This is NOT the same as diffusing the light.
In fact, it's wasting usable light because it's being scattered away from it's intended target.
You've been had. You've fallen for a gimmick. You reflector is LESS efficient than a similar sized non-dimpled reflector.
I wouldn't get too upset over it, it happens to the best of us.
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
Since you have worked with optics professionally (I assume -- unless you were an intern or something), I'll accept what you've said regarding the light dispersion or the dimples. However, can you still tell me that A-Foil is any more than 60% reflective (light, not heat) at best, or german aluminum any less than 85% (at worst - in hoods at least)?
Heck, I'll even support your claims regarding the dimples and point out that the only lighting reflector (that I know of) which was actually designed by lighting engineers is the Hydrofarm Radiant reflector, which does not use a dimpled surface. It does however use german aluminum. I can only assume that these lighting engineers are specialists in their field, and have a reason for using german aluminum vs aluminum foil.
No, I cannot say A-foil is more than 60% reflective, but all along I haven't disagreed that A-foil is the lowest light reflecting material of the common materials used.
For a beginner on a tight budget with a small CFL grow, A-foil is fine for now. I've even suggested that when the OP is able to, they should use something better.
Polished aluminum, whether it sources from Germany or elsewhere, is superior to A-foil. I haven't denied that either. The dimpled reflectors, well.........
The thing is though, both share similar heat reflecting properties. (same with Mylar) 99% of the time it's not the light that hurts the plants, it's the heat.
It's nuts for a person using an aluminum reflector to bash someone using A-foil on their walls. (not saying you did)