EagleEyeHamThrust
Active Member
So I've been sitting around daydreaming of ways to tackle some heat problems other than the usual routes, and I thought about radiant heat and how effective low-e glass is against it.
Here is chart showing the transmittance for various wavelengths of low-e and regular glass. (Warning, you'll need to zoom in and squint a bit
)
Here is chlorophyll's absorption of light.
Basically you can see a slight decrease in the range of light that chlorophyll uses, but there is a huge reduction in the infrared spectrum, which is radiant heat.
This could be useful for a few reasons:
1. You can order a vinyl low-e replacement window for about $100-$150, or less during a sale, at any Home Depot or Lowes. (Sales are usually in the Spring btw)
2. You could use it as a heat shield between your lights and your plants getting you much closer to your lights without nuking them, and it would effectively reflect the heat back into the rest of the room where it wouldn't be so intensely focused on the plant. Getting a replacement double-hung window would essentially give you two heat shields for around $100-$150.
3. Might be useful for a cabinet grow. Simply get a replacement fixed-pane window that is the right size to create a divider between your lights and plants, and then you can have a "cool zone" rather than a cool tube setup. Again allowing your plants to get very close to your lights.
4. Low-E glass is usually double pane, so it has a reasonable R-rating to help slow ambient heat transfer through the air.
Some bad news:
Low-E isn't universal and some manufacturers created tinted Low-E that can be more prone to blocking visible spectrum light. Also, there's not much data on transmissivity.
What do you all think? If I get some extra money ever, I'll definitely try this out to see what happens!
Here is chart showing the transmittance for various wavelengths of low-e and regular glass. (Warning, you'll need to zoom in and squint a bit
)Here is chlorophyll's absorption of light.
Basically you can see a slight decrease in the range of light that chlorophyll uses, but there is a huge reduction in the infrared spectrum, which is radiant heat.
This could be useful for a few reasons:
1. You can order a vinyl low-e replacement window for about $100-$150, or less during a sale, at any Home Depot or Lowes. (Sales are usually in the Spring btw)
2. You could use it as a heat shield between your lights and your plants getting you much closer to your lights without nuking them, and it would effectively reflect the heat back into the rest of the room where it wouldn't be so intensely focused on the plant. Getting a replacement double-hung window would essentially give you two heat shields for around $100-$150.
3. Might be useful for a cabinet grow. Simply get a replacement fixed-pane window that is the right size to create a divider between your lights and plants, and then you can have a "cool zone" rather than a cool tube setup. Again allowing your plants to get very close to your lights.
4. Low-E glass is usually double pane, so it has a reasonable R-rating to help slow ambient heat transfer through the air.
Some bad news:
Low-E isn't universal and some manufacturers created tinted Low-E that can be more prone to blocking visible spectrum light. Also, there's not much data on transmissivity.
What do you all think? If I get some extra money ever, I'll definitely try this out to see what happens!