Does Mylar conduct?

[ddrueding]

I've built a custom lighting enclosure using daylight flourescent bulbs. I have some highly reflective stuff that I think is Mylar, and I'd love to simply wrap it around the back of the bulbs to use as a reflector. However, I know the ballasts jack the voltage up to the tens of thousands of volts, and that this could be bad.

Thoughts?

 

[mubs]

Mylar most certainly conducts; mylar balloons are every electric utility's nightmare when they short transmission wires they come in contact with. But I don't think they can sustain a decent VA for any appreciable length of time.

But that's not something you want to test in your lighting enclosure...

 

[Bozo]

I believe Mylar by itself is an insulator. But the balloons mubs mentioned were coated with a sustance to make them look like shinny aluminum. This coating is conductive.
We use mylar at work in SCR packages as an insulator.

Bozo :joker: