Reflective Effectiveness

I've read a good amount about the distance in which a CFL bulbs' light will travel/penetrate and its not overly impressive.

example you have a 4' x 4' x 4' box lined with mylar or whatever else with a plant approximately 3' tall 1.4' wide in the middle.

How effective is that reflective material at feeding the light from a CFL back to the plant?

Dr.Pot said:

I've read a good amount about the distance in which a CFL bulbs' light will travel/penetrate and its not overly impressive.

example you have a 4' x 4' x 4' box lined with mylar or whatever else with a plant approximately 3' tall 1.4' wide in the middle.

How effective is that reflective material at feeding the light from a CFL back to the plant?

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Mylar is 95% reflective of what it receives. However It won't get much from CFL but for $1.50 a sheet, If it gives 1g for each one. Its worth its weight in gold.

I am using Mylar as a reflector for my DIY'd CFL hood. Bulbs are less than 1" from the Mylar I assume that would be maximum effectiveness for CFLs

It reflects whatever you got going on. I've used it on 1st grow and for the price and time involved in putting it in place it's cheap and effective IMHO.

Right, so say the CFL is an inch away from the mylar, how far will the light go from there?

Just assume that its not even worth having if the plant is more than an inch or two away from the reflecter?

Is that accurate?

I've asked myself the same thing, but I have, and will continue to use mylar. I don't have a light meter, so I don't have any data on 'with' and 'without mylar' light readings in my grow box. But for $10 to line my box and make a reflector for my bulbs, it seemed like a no-brainer. My box is certainly brighter having been lined with Diamond Reflective Sheeting; how much of that light is beneficial to the plant? I don't know. Some, hopefully.