Does It Matter Which Reflector I Use?

[Behold]

white is always best, white light is formed from 7 colours and if the reflector was red, the red light would be refracted. but with white all of the colour is refracted back into the water, i mean would you rather have mirror style seats in your car or white, id certainly go for white because it remains cooler in hotter temperature, when there is lots of light, becasue its all being refracted, where as a mirror reflects some of the light not all off it, so white remains most efficiant

I understand what you say and it is true BUT......

Black is a non reflective colour i.e it absorbs all light and relects nothing. where as white reflects all of the spectrum giving it the white look. This however does not mean its the most reflective substance as white needs to be Pure white otherwise it removes some of the light source.

At work we have a white reader for our linen and once it drops below a certain colour due to grime and age its considered not white. but to the naked eye will still lok DAZ white!!
Even the purest of white linen is not trully white leaving a element of absobed light.

A mirror finished metal has less chance of absorbsion and so there is less chance of lost light.

I believe a mirrored metal has a 5-8% difference in light reflected depending on the quality where as white its nearer a 10-15% depending on the quality.

Also Polishing a white surface will five a much better reflection than just a shiny white. the issue is you mush avoid a laquer to achive this as this wall alter and loose some refracted light.

With this i would go mirror every time as its much easier to ensure a higher reflective surface.

 

[SuperColey1]

All I can add to this is that if you buy cheap reflectors like the Arcadia one or the Juwel one then they are polished silver metal. The Arcadia one is angled better than the Juwel one IMO.

If you buy expensive reflectors (I bought some along time ago) they will not be polished metal. They are normally plain unpolished 'whitish' aluminum!!!

I have the benefit of having an Arcadia polished over a T8 and an aluminium over a HOT5 and there is a huge benefit to the aluminium 'whitish' one.

Forget that its a T5HO but you can't see the difference between the reflection to the eye or rather you can't seperate the light from the reflection as the colour from the reflector matches the colour of the tube making it look as if you are looking at a T40<-----;P tube

The T8 you can clearly seperate the white of the bulb from the slightly off white of the reflection

The Ice Cap reflectors which are silly prices are in this 'whitish' aluminum'

AC