Medicine4Me
Active Member
First and foremost, when you're paying to run your lights - Make sure the heavy loads you run are from 7 pm to 7 am - You will only be charged half the normal rate.
Someday you may have the opportunity to move into a house with fire sprinklers - - If you do you won't ever have to face a burned out house and whatever you have growing.
Fortunately for me my house came with a fire sprinkler system. I designed the grow rooms under the house (there are three fire sprinklers protecting the plants from ever burning up. Should a fire in the grow room ever start it will be put out long before the fire department gets there.
From all the reading I've done it seems the best way to bounce light back from surfaces is flat white paint. Other people say Mylar is cheaper and more reflective than the Poly black plastic on outside/white on inside. Either way all surfaces get dusty and need cleaning.
If you put up the large plastic sheets of Poly white plastic for walls - Some growers paint over the white to get the gloss off the walls.
Stay away from foil - If that's your only recourse use the "dull" side facing out - not the shiny side.
Think of mirrors like Dracula, (you can't see those suckers) the mirror soaks lumens in and they lessen by the time they bounce off the inside of the mirrored glass back on out to the plants.
The ceiling of my space is 10 feet up. I wan't thrilled with having to put the Poly White plastic on the ceiling, but when done it made a big difference bouncing the light off the plastic instead of the pink insulation - Plus I don't like working around exposed insulation or the idea of is falling into the buds.
My entire floor space is dark colored dirt - I place white painted plastic materials all around on the floor. When they get dirty, I rinse them off. I tried using empty white sand bags, but found they collect dirt and are too messy. I use empty milk jugs by cutting the bottom off and give them a coat of paint. Whatever your floor space color is unless it's already white - If you fill up the space with them you will get more light to the plants.
If you use buckets in soil or hydro - paint the outside of those containers white.
A bucket of cheap flat white will last at least a year or two - The walls will yellow in time and need to be repainted.
Use caulking or anything to seal up light leaks. They don't seem like much, but they add up to savings if they're all sealed.
My EZ-Clone box came jet black so it got a coat of paint on all sides except the top.
Leave the fire extinguisher RED - In a fire you need to see that.
Don't paint extension cords white - That puts more another coat of insulation on the cord and will make them run hotter which in turn isn't good for the ballast.
If you have tips along these lines, please post them - I'm always looking for ideas that work.
Someday you may have the opportunity to move into a house with fire sprinklers - - If you do you won't ever have to face a burned out house and whatever you have growing.
Fortunately for me my house came with a fire sprinkler system. I designed the grow rooms under the house (there are three fire sprinklers protecting the plants from ever burning up. Should a fire in the grow room ever start it will be put out long before the fire department gets there.
From all the reading I've done it seems the best way to bounce light back from surfaces is flat white paint. Other people say Mylar is cheaper and more reflective than the Poly black plastic on outside/white on inside. Either way all surfaces get dusty and need cleaning.
If you put up the large plastic sheets of Poly white plastic for walls - Some growers paint over the white to get the gloss off the walls.
Stay away from foil - If that's your only recourse use the "dull" side facing out - not the shiny side.
Think of mirrors like Dracula, (you can't see those suckers) the mirror soaks lumens in and they lessen by the time they bounce off the inside of the mirrored glass back on out to the plants.
The ceiling of my space is 10 feet up. I wan't thrilled with having to put the Poly White plastic on the ceiling, but when done it made a big difference bouncing the light off the plastic instead of the pink insulation - Plus I don't like working around exposed insulation or the idea of is falling into the buds.
My entire floor space is dark colored dirt - I place white painted plastic materials all around on the floor. When they get dirty, I rinse them off. I tried using empty white sand bags, but found they collect dirt and are too messy. I use empty milk jugs by cutting the bottom off and give them a coat of paint. Whatever your floor space color is unless it's already white - If you fill up the space with them you will get more light to the plants.
If you use buckets in soil or hydro - paint the outside of those containers white.
A bucket of cheap flat white will last at least a year or two - The walls will yellow in time and need to be repainted.
Use caulking or anything to seal up light leaks. They don't seem like much, but they add up to savings if they're all sealed.
My EZ-Clone box came jet black so it got a coat of paint on all sides except the top.
Leave the fire extinguisher RED - In a fire you need to see that.
Don't paint extension cords white - That puts more another coat of insulation on the cord and will make them run hotter which in turn isn't good for the ballast.
If you have tips along these lines, please post them - I'm always looking for ideas that work.