Mirrors?

Hey guys, i was just thinking about reflective materials for grow room/box's and everyone seems to say Mylar first thing, wich is cool i understand it is a great reflective material.

Well i was wondering if anyone out there has thought about mirrors before? i mean the concept of using them sounds like it would work great. and they are fairly cheap arent they? just did a quick research on a piece of 1/8 in mirror glass that is 3ft wide and 6 ft tall and it was 20 bucks, a roll of mylar 100sq ft is 80.00 so the mirrors would be slightly more expensive. but would it be worth it? i know them being glass sucks because of risks with breaking them and such but just and idea i had and wanted some opinions..

Matt

Not sure... Im thinking it may create hot spots on the plants if using them in conjunction with hid lights... I could be wrong though...

Mirrors absorb light.

www.lmgtfy.com

Hot spots ware the main reason why mirrors aren't used

Destillat said:

Hot spots ware the main reason why mirrors aren't used

Click to expand...

Nah, not really.
Mylar causes hot spots too but it's used because it reflects more light than a mirror does.

This really can't be debated..... it's proven fact.

Mirrors eat light. They don't reflect it.

that is interesting that they absorb light, is it because of the glass?


i was just curious is all they sounded like a good idea, and i would probally use them for a CFL grow if anything.

thanks for the replies

dang i thought you were onto something with those mirros untill i read all the replies...shows it is always better to ask 1st

well i was in the bathroom and the mirror got me thinking so i fig i would ask lol

can you put a link up for a good site that has done research on this, all im finding is that they reflect 90% of the light and mylar reflects 90-98% but its just a forum (no offense to anyone here)

you can buy mylar buy the meter and its 2 meters wide, in the UK its 1.50 for a 1x2 meter sheet, so you could do a big bedroom for 10 pound ($20) its proberly even cheaper over there. or just paint the walls flat white which will be more reflective than mirrors.

With a specific type of mirror, scientific quality, a proper full spectrum light can be reflected by a mirror. But the common plate glass mirror is based on a silver/copper coating that absorbs many of the composites of the light spectrum, especially the blue-red that our plants need. The principle behind the mirror is angular deflection of the light taken to it at an exact opposite angle to that angle that the light is delivered to it.

What we are looking for is diffuse reflection where the light delivered is "splayed" in a wide pattern over the surface reflecting it onto the plants, here are specular reflection figures from Cervantes that can be a basic tool.


Foylon 94-95
Reflective Mylar 90-95
Flat white paint 85-93
Semi-gloss white 75-80
Flat yellow 70-80
Aluminum Foil 70-75
Black < 10

thanks Trich good info, i read a bit more into it just out of simple curiosity and yeah they suck, would have to spend thousands of dollars to get mirrors that would be good for growing.

it would burn your plant