Tin foil
- Thread starter lanepark
- Start date
SenorSanteria
Well-Known Member
95% of the people on here will tell you not to use aluminum foil, for good reason. There is, however, an exception. The ONLY way I'd recommend using foil is if youre on an EXTREMELY tight budget, and are using CFL's for light. DO NOT USE FOIL WITH HID's! CFL's are not powerful enough to cause the hot-spots and burns on your plant that you will get when using foil with an HPS or Metal Halide.
A much better solution is flat white paint, or if you have some coin, Mylar.
A much better solution is flat white paint, or if you have some coin, Mylar.
chunkymunkey33
Well-Known Member
Senor is right. You can use it but it's not ideal. If you do, make sure you put the dull side towards the plants. White paint is a little less reflective, but it's a very good alternative. If you still want to use a more metallic reflector but can't afford mylar, you could buy a couple of those helium birthday balloons and cut them open and tape them up. There's also those emergency blankets in the camping section of walmart too.
GlassFreak
Well-Known Member
agreed, mylar is good for eliminating hotspots but it still concentrates light, flat white paint disperses light evenly over a larger area, much much better than tin foil, using tin foil is like holding a magnifying glass over your plant and concentrating the beam of light into a dot... just all over the place.
GlassFreak
Well-Known Member
theres mylar space blankets at like walmart. cheaper than rolls of mylar. same thing, just thinner.
Douche Nozzle
Well-Known Member
Out of curiosity I always wondered why tin foil is different than mylar. They have about the same reflectiveness. Why does foil concentrate light more than mylar? Not that I disagree, just opening a little debate and discussion.
chunkymunkey33
Well-Known Member
It doesn't concentrate it more naturally, it's just that foil can get creases and bends that can cause a magnifying effect. If mylar gets bent it generally just points the light in a different direction kind of like how most reflectors have bends in them. That's what I think anyway.
As I recall, flat white paint is around 80 (something) % reflective and aluminum foil is only around 40 (something)%. That's the real reason not to use it, it just sucks!
I don't buy into the "Hotspot" story! I've never experienced it myself and I don't know anybody that ever has. Or even anybody that claims to have actually seen it!
Creased, or crumpled, foil would scatter light not focus it or magnify it. Give me a break - it would take an incredible co-insidence for that to happen! Has anyone actually had foil cause hotspots? I doubt it!
Although foil appears to be highly reflective it is only about half as good as flat white paint. It's low reflectiveness is why you shouldn't use it.