well to hop back on topic..
Any form of vertical, whether it be a soil or hydro grow is going to be more efficient gpw wise. reflectors rob us of light and the distance the light is from the plant robs our babies of precious lumens. That being said I would have to agree to disagree with some of you guys. Each method of growing is going to have benefits for the grower and would have negative benefits to other growers.
I have done A soil grow and after i realised i was going to have to get rid of a shit ton of soil after my back was already sore from handwatering 30 plants for 12 weeks I said fuck it. now yes those first buds had that great guano earthy hippy crack organic taste which was nice but not worth the hassle. after making the switch to hydro I realised that it was very easy to fuck your shit up with great efficiency so you had to be more careful because there is so much less of a buffer zone. but its kind of like the old carpenters saying goes measure twice cut once... meaning if you do your homework and dont be an idiot you can pull it off with great ease. after tuning into hydro methods I will never go back. all you have to do is change the res once a week and clean some rocks every cycle... thats it... be careful what you feed your babies and they will rock out wit their nugs out.
now that being said i have tried quite a few hydro methods... i have done DWC, drippers, ebb and flo, and everything inbetween. I currently am doing a vertical drip/ebb and flo system and couldnt be happier. but the point is that it fits MY specific needs. I needed a system that could do maximum output for the energy i paid for and fit it in the smallest available space. If i had a big ass house I would probably have a totally different setup, if i lived in a college dorm i would probably build a stealth dresser, if i had a warehouse i would probably have 50 omega gardens stacked and filled... its all about your NEEDS and specific specifications. No method is any better or worse than another one, they each have pros and cons, the only thing better or worse are the growers tending them... smoke on that!
FLo