Re: osram lumilux -- or - reflecting of hood materials

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Gordon L. Mc Lellan:

> The new hood I built is painted high-gloss white on
> the
> inside with something called Painters Touch by Rustoleum.  It is a
> very
> bright white, and made a huge difference on the t8's.  I'm sure
> polished
> aluminum could do even better, but imho (for my own needs) this white
> paint works really well, and is a lot easier then trying to polish
> and bend
> sheet aluminum myself, and a lot less expensive then a pre-made
> reflector.

White paint will actually reflects better than aluminum foil. 
Something proven again and again back in the sixties when lots of folks
grew plants indoor.

Highly polished aluminum can give even better results than paint(for
example the Miro material that AH Supply uses for its reflectors) and
the closer you get to a true parabolic shape, the better (again, like
AH Supply reflectors) -- with a parabola and a light source at the
center of it, all the angles of refraction result in the light going
straight out the front of the refelctor (or down in the case of an
aquarium light.  Aluminum flashing from Home Depot won't reflect better
than good white paint but it will do about as well as Reynolds aluminum
foil.

Scott H.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com