Hello fellow growers and know it all’s 
I am hoping to start my construction in a smaller confined space. But want to know due to the space restrictions should I go with reflection foil type such as the one in tents. Or go a little DIY and get some nice white walls? I am only growing a few plants at a time and for the start just one. Thank ya for reading and your time. Be easy
Lokster
white walls cannot create hot spots but are not as reflective, if you are using reflective surface make sure it’s diffusing the light not concentrating it. Either way reflected light isn’t as effective as direct light. I think that’s my 2 cents!
@JoeCrowe Thank ya. I am making sure my lights are a good W for the space to not buzz it to death. But had to make sure if reflecting was a big detail in the plan. Thanks Joe
Unless you are making your mylar/foiled/reflective walls into the shape of a parabolic mirror your not gonna create hotspots, especially if using say led light sources of distributed variety if they can’t burn say 6 in away they they definitely wont traveling 2-3-6 feet off a wall then back to an area, prove me otherwise but its one of those folk lore that gets carried forward with time as say having curved or wavey mylar walls running a 1000+w hps that throws off alot of IR heat comparably but that energy still has to travel all the way to that point then get focused into a point its very unlikely. Also from an energy transfer stand point a Specular reflection is more efficient than a diffuse reflections as your energy wave is still carrying forward in a linear fashion instead of being scattered any which way, diffuse walls or panels just look brighter to the eye because well more energy is being scattered towards your eyes.
To @Lokster all options are better than doing nothing, if you want paint go for an ultra white flat paint but your gonna have to put on 4-5 coats as even still alot of light will be absorbed or affected by the pigment binders in your standard paint, Foil, mylar or whatever is good and works well but there is a difference between cheap stuff like emergency blankets where you can still see light through it vs the expensive stuff, diamond pattern or flat doesn’t really matter, still though will be better than paint. Myself i actually use aluminum foil shiny side out spray glued onto cardboard panels as my wall panels cheap easy and really effective, also i will say i use to scoff at the idea as it was another one of those folk lore things but was proven otherwise when another pointed it out to me why it was incorrect, and through my own measurements testing it vs ultra flat white paint, emergency blanket mylar, and some cheap diamond pattern mylar it consistently came out on top for me.
Don’t need to be fancy or spend alot of time or money when there are some really effective solutions.
Man great post. So it seems I must use the Diffuse Mechanics on this one. So then the white paint needs to be on to hold all the light and scatter it around to other sides of plant. Can make it look nice in a sense. And besides you can use the alluminum and make it look respectable and not like a kindergarten school project XD.
So there won’t even be a problem if my lights are set right and plants are at a safe distance, I don’t have to mind the wall space since it’s still using the molecules then dividing them again and who I don’t have the calculations to determine what’s too much or too little. Good wiki links and learned a little more in general.
Lokster
Edit: Also I am now seeing and want to assume that’s why the tents have that nice foil reflect with it?
I think the concerns with reflective related back to the HID days. A single crease will not create a hot spot on its own but lots of creases focusing to one point can create a hot spot. However, with multi point sources like modern LEDs strips and quantum boards and even COBs it doesn’t matter anymore.
I think the need for highly reflective tent walls is a holdover from the days of flourescent’s, CFL’s, HID’s etc. Those light sources - even with reflectors, had a huge percentage of their light output going somewhere OTHER than to the plants. That made it very important to try to make use of all that wasted energy by trying to reflect it back to where it was needed.
Modern LED’s - especially strip type LED’s are far more focused. They do not send very much light off to the sides and none of it goes up. Here is a typical radiation intensity graph. This is for the LM301H.
The vast majority of the light energy goes down - not to the sides - and none is going out past a 90 deg angle or up.
This means there is far less need to go hog wild about highly reflective side walls or any area above the height of your lights.
That said, there is still some light thats going to hit the side walls, and you will be increasing your efficiency if your side walls are reflective However, I dont think its nearly as important a detail as it used to be in the “old days” before we had cheap, high efficiency LED’s. 
I personally quit worrying about polishing the side walls of my tent after I put in my LED light. I clean them between grows, but I dont care about water spots, smudges, old pieces of tape, etc etc. It just doesnt make a significant difference - especially if you use strip lights that are spread out evenly over the grow space. Just dont under size the lights, and use dimable drivers, and you will be fine no matter what you do with the side walls.
Do the best you can, within your budget, but dont go over board. Save that money for some other aspect of the setup.
Edit: Ha1 @BudSy beet me to it!
Edit #2: check out this thread by @Mr.Sparkle for everything you need to know as far as designing a great LED fixture on a budget.
Hahahah, the race was on. I could see your icon popping up
If I wasnt so dam long winded…
You are not one to cut a conversation short, that’s for sure It’s great what your sharing about aero.
I was told long ago like has been said as long as you light isnr directed in one spot such as the sun conentrating it thru a magnifying glass ro burn ants or start a campfire you should be ok with the heat dissapation
This is an awesome idea for a small space. I got a mental image of me trying to cover my 4x6’ room with aluminum foil. 
There is foil lined foam insulation panels, and have seen pre made cardboard ones as well at homedepot, or even say rolls of reflectix meant for radiant insulation purposes all works.
So thats what you use on your grows…happened upon your thread and was wondering since I wanna build a couple 3x3 spaces to make use of my 315w CMH
yeah just aluminum foil spray glue “super 77” and thin cardboard panels
Yeah I saw those panels at Home Depot the other day that looked like it would work
Ahh. That was one of the things was HID or LED. But good to see that LED is getting more advanced with their game. But if I use HID for money if they are cheaper I haven’t checked my store I’m heading to today + I only need around 200W then 400W ish with HID. I’ll make sure to upkeep my place too. I ain’t not hooligan. If I live nice my plants gonna live nice. Thank you all again!~
Lokster
Led’s are pretty cheap now adays also depends on what your lighting size wise, honestly worth in regardless imo.
Yeah i always used mh but just got 2 cheap leds see what they can do. 300 watt ful spectrum came with a tent. And i picked up a full spectrum at a yardsale other day 800 watts my ww have been under 300 watt led since sprouting
@Mr.Sparkle Yeah I just went to my local store organic too so that’s a plus. Had good nutrients but not ratios that I was looking for or may need but I haven’t decided on what strain to get so there’s prb already someone with a cheat sheet hehe .
@potdaddy4x4 Looking nice though! And you’re getting some good ass deals wth. Yard sales that’s my next thing to check out. Always people with garages using LEDS etc. What kind are ya growing may I ask?
Lokster
