.............CONTINUED
This post is another comparison really and is not on equal terms. what I am using for the comparison is the cheap mirrored polished aluminium reflector (this is 1 month old and very clean. No dents etc. versus an expensive T5HO dedicated brushed 'white' aluminium reflector 2 years old but clean.
On the left of the 1st pic is the mirrored reflector. It is a plain simple curve so I haven't taken a profile pic of it. On the right of the first picture is the brushed 'white' reflector. You can see how different in colour and texture the surface is. It is much stronger though.
The profile you see is of the end of the T5HO reflector. I bought this as an all in one unit. It had a special electronic ballast that was housed within the hollow section. Then it was sealed with fixed end caps with the tube fitted. These were marketed as plug and play disposables in that they are not meant to have the tubes replaced.
I bought 2 of these to 'downgrade' in March 2007 from 2.5WPG of CF to 1.8WPG of T5HO. Within a week of algae and huge plants I turned one off. lol. these were immeasurably better than the CFs.
Unfortunately I wasn't very careful in storing them when I went over to LED hence why one reflector is now in 15 sections being used as heatsinking in the LED luminaire and this one is sitting waiting for a purpose. lol
Onto the simple comparison. Below is a pic of 2 simple 3 LED (standard ones) push lights that I used. If I had used flourescent lighting you would not see any difference just 2 circles of white:
Firstly we look at the normal reflection qualities from the reflectors. On the left you see that the mirrored one shows me taking the picture quite clearly. On the right the brushed white one shows absolutely nothing, not even a vague shape:
What do they do with light?
On the left the mirrored one shows 2 small lights and a little bit of light in other areas. Now look at the right. It isn't the shape that is doing that. Look at the central direct strike area. The light is huge in comparison. The shape will of course be better at redirecting the restrike but you can see by the surface of the direct area that the initial central hit is significantly better than the polished one!!!
So I am looking at these 2 pictures and saying yes I can see that the better shape of the T5HO reflector is redirecting light much better away from the restrike area BUT that doesn't explain why the direct strike area show much improved performance on the T5 reflector's surface. The light that is hitting that initial are before redirection is showing a much higher reflection on the brushed one than the mirrored!!!
I await some discussion now. lol This should set a few people going on something that I may well be totally wrong on.
Regards
Andy
This post is another comparison really and is not on equal terms. what I am using for the comparison is the cheap mirrored polished aluminium reflector (this is 1 month old and very clean. No dents etc. versus an expensive T5HO dedicated brushed 'white' aluminium reflector 2 years old but clean.
On the left of the 1st pic is the mirrored reflector. It is a plain simple curve so I haven't taken a profile pic of it. On the right of the first picture is the brushed 'white' reflector. You can see how different in colour and texture the surface is. It is much stronger though.
The profile you see is of the end of the T5HO reflector. I bought this as an all in one unit. It had a special electronic ballast that was housed within the hollow section. Then it was sealed with fixed end caps with the tube fitted. These were marketed as plug and play disposables in that they are not meant to have the tubes replaced.
I bought 2 of these to 'downgrade' in March 2007 from 2.5WPG of CF to 1.8WPG of T5HO. Within a week of algae and huge plants I turned one off. lol. these were immeasurably better than the CFs.
Unfortunately I wasn't very careful in storing them when I went over to LED hence why one reflector is now in 15 sections being used as heatsinking in the LED luminaire and this one is sitting waiting for a purpose. lol
Onto the simple comparison. Below is a pic of 2 simple 3 LED (standard ones) push lights that I used. If I had used flourescent lighting you would not see any difference just 2 circles of white:
Firstly we look at the normal reflection qualities from the reflectors. On the left you see that the mirrored one shows me taking the picture quite clearly. On the right the brushed white one shows absolutely nothing, not even a vague shape:
What do they do with light?
On the left the mirrored one shows 2 small lights and a little bit of light in other areas. Now look at the right. It isn't the shape that is doing that. Look at the central direct strike area. The light is huge in comparison. The shape will of course be better at redirecting the restrike but you can see by the surface of the direct area that the initial central hit is significantly better than the polished one!!!
So I am looking at these 2 pictures and saying yes I can see that the better shape of the T5HO reflector is redirecting light much better away from the restrike area BUT that doesn't explain why the direct strike area show much improved performance on the T5 reflector's surface. The light that is hitting that initial are before redirection is showing a much higher reflection on the brushed one than the mirrored!!!
I await some discussion now. lol This should set a few people going on something that I may well be totally wrong on.
Regards
Andy