Reflectivity

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Reflectivity
From: Erik Olson <eriko at wrq_com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 07:32:40 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <199607240739.DAA15634 at looney_actwin.com>

> Hello,  I use mylar as a reflective service for all of my light  
> fixtures.  Even commercial fixtures.  Mylar is cheap and greatly 
> increases reflected light.  FYI.  Mike Bernardoni

Back when I was an academic, we did some review of reflectivity.  One of
the best bargains is simply white paint, which gets you 90-95%
reflectivity (or so, I'm doing this from memory).  Mylar is better, with
something like 95-97% reflectivity, and the next step up is silverized
teflon which has 99%+ reflectivity, but costs some hundred dollars per
square yard.  Aluminum foil is not particularly the best.  Personally, I
paint the insides of all my fixtures white, and if I need more than that,
get mylar.

    - Erik
    (in sunny hot biking-weather Seattle)

---
Erik D. Olson					         amazingly, at home
eriko at wrq_com