mirrors vs. mylar

[Guest]

TricHorTreat - i dnt no wat u mean by the lack of light ... bt if i explained it wrong before i'll try again: Black ABSORBS every colour in the light/colour spectrum and therefore reflects almost none of it.
Explained clean and simple ... i think?

P.s - I think mylar would possibly b better than white pain on wood bt i definately prefer panda plastic to mylar

Not So Good = Tinfoil
Good = White Paint
Excellent = Mylar
Supreme = Panda Plastic

my opinion based on facts and personal experience

 

[DontBanMe]

go get urself a can of FLAT white paint...the cheapest way to get great reflection. and easy as hell to maintain...Flat White is the #1 choice in every grow book i have got my hands on.

 

[Guest]

DontBanMe - I agree that white paint is definately the easiest and cheapest option fo them all lol

 

[DontBanMe]

It might get beat in reflection by 5-10% by mylar but omg mylar can be a BITCH to keep clean...and if it isnt clean its not working at 100% anyways.

 

[TricHorTreat]

yeah I'd agree that black absorbs everything. I may have misunderstood I thought the claim was that black is all the color frequencies mixed together.

 

[Guest]

yea it kinda sounds like that, im not very good at explaining stuff first time round lol ... let me correct myself:

A Black object absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them. This is sometimes confused with black being called 'a mixture of all colors', but that is not the case. An object emitting or reflecting all colors is perceived as white to the HUMAN eye.

Man I get all thsi shite confused sometime lol ... I wonder what different animals see went they look at colours lol, hmmm...

 

[TricHorTreat]

They probably see different shades of gray.

But to contribute to the thread I'll say that mylar is really reflective but annoying to keep clean. I would go with flat white paint if the mylar wasn't up already.

 

[dirtybudz]

Black Jack white acrylic latex roof coating(see below) is rated at 95% light reflectivity (ASTM C-523)

Any folds, kinks, hard water or fertilizer stains in aluminum laminated poly (mylar) will cause hot spots, but more notably will also reflect or "mirror" any dark areas as well. A clean white surface (non-glossy) will have the most even energy reflection and will return more usable spectrum to your girls. The "ideal" surface area would be a spherical or more realistically a cylindrical shape around your grow. (e.g. look at your bulb reflectors or step outside and look up at the sky and surrounding atmosphere-the worlds best reflector!)

PS-my cab walls are "dingy" and I hate painting so I use mylar blankets LOL!

Black Jack

 

[Lou Dog]

My first grow is under way in a small bucket right now, but we're building a legit room in the eaves of a friend's house. We basically have to finish a room before putting in lights and buckets and such, it's just insulation between studs right now. We're putting 3 mil clear plastic over all of the walls/ceiling with a staple gun, and melting seams together with a heat gun. We have to insulate a wall and the ceiling, as well as the corner of the room. The room is a triangular prism, 7' tall at one end, then over 8' the roof slopes down to 1' tall. It's about 6' wide, and access is by a ~2'X~2' tunnel running inside parallel to the gutters. It's tough to crawl through the tunnel, so we roll in on a skateboard on our stomachs.

Anyways, after the plastic we're thinking of using Tyvek because I have a 5' tall roll of it probably over 100' long. What do you guys think of tyvek for walls? It's white, cheap, durable, and I'm pretty sure it isn't flammable [not really a problem, its a CFL grow, but you can't be too safe].

 

[KillerDemo]

ive always heard that mylar was supreme over everything including panda plastic...??? anybody else wanna chime in and share?

 

[FreezerBoy]

yeah I'd agree that black absorbs everything. I may have misunderstood I thought the claim was that black is all the color frequencies mixed together.

You probably got confused between the worlds of light and paint. In Light, white is all colors combined. Paint (ink, dyes, crayons) black would be all colors if the colors are pure, which they never are so, in reality it's a very dark brown or olive.

 

[mid-east-stone]

so- should i take the morrors down in favor of the paint?

so- should i take the morrors down in favor of the paint?

is it worth the worry after the morrors are already in there?
i mean: it is not that i have nothing...
what do you think?
m.

 

[greenisgold]

Mylar is one of the best reflective materials if used right, but folks it really sucks in grow rooms. Those comparisons that were posted are referring to mylar when mylar is is pulled tight. In other words there are no ripples, sags, creases, etc at all... It is also amost impossible to keep 100 percent clean in a grow room. Get water and or water/nutes on it and it is done. Save your money and paint your walls white or get panda plastic which is very easy to work, reflects plenty of light and is easy to clean.
Peace.
Or really go all out and line your room with specular aluminum.

 

[guest101]

Its true mylar is hard to clean right... but when i changed from white spayed paint to it... damnnn it was a nice noticeable upgrade!
I tried plactic, but gave up in the beggining due to heat issues.
Mylar lets more heat out.
To bigger grows, plastic seems better for mantainance and so on, but on small spaces, mylar can be an excelent upgrade, even if you change it every year...