Specialty and Architectural Lighting — Ultraviolet Light

In addition to the deadly and debilitating impacts of COVID-19, its spread within communities has also illuminated the inadequacies of basic prevention and control strategies in place at public facilities and institutions. One of the most glaring examples is residential care facilities. There are currently (2021) over 16,000 nursing homes and long term care facilities in the U.S. Of the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of April 2021, residential care facilities accounted...

Upper air ultraviolet germicidal equipment is designed to provide air disinfection within an occupied space. The louvered upper air units are wall or ceiling mounted above the "human zone" in the space, generally at 7 feet or higher. The usual UV-C 253.7 nanometer (nm) wavelength emitted by the germicidal light bulbs is directed out of the unit by the louvers and into the layer of air at or above the mounting height of the unit....

Dating back to the late 1960's and early 1970's, ultraviolet light was used to cure wood fillers and coatings on furniture. Since then, with the development of a wide range of UV curable materials and specialized equipment, UV curing has grown exponentially - widely adopted in manufacturing, graphic arts, and printing. Technically, UV curing is the polymerization of a coating, adhesive, or ink when it interacts with ultraviolet radiation. This process makes possible rapid drying...

You may have noticed that the specifications for fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent bulbs, and ultraviolet lamps provide watts, but almost never volts. Why not? Ballasts, invisible inside the fixture, are required for all fluorescent bulbs to operate. Ballasts modify the line voltage they are connected to (120V, 277V, etc.) so the proper current is supplied to the bulb. Because ballasts are hidden, it is easy to assume the bulbs are simply operated directly off line voltage from the...

Blacklights are not merely for special effects and lighting up cool posters. They also have an important clinical use by veterinarians. These bulbs are very common for diagnosing ringworm in cats, dogs, and other animals. The most common tool veterinarians use to diagnose ringworm on pets is a Wood's Lamp, which is another name for the common blacklight bulb with a blue filter. According to Wikipedia, Wood's lamps have been used since 1925 to detect...

The performance of fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and low pressure mercury ultraviolet bulbs deteriorates in ambient temperatures that rise above certain design parameters. At high fixture and room temperatures, light output and color characteristics deteriorate. CFLs are particularly affected by this, as anyone who has had a CFL bulb in a porch light or the garage fail on a hot summer day has learned. But this effect on ultraviolet germicidal bulbs can be...

Reasonable care should be taken in both the handling of broken light bulbs and the disposal of burned out bulbs that contain mercury. For decades, fluorescent and CFL bulbs have been used widely in commercial and residential general lighting settings, but there has been a vast increase in homeowners, businesses, and institutions utilizing ultraviolet bulbs to purify air and sanitize surfaces due to the COVID-19 situation. Fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent, UVC germicidal, UVA blacklight, metal...

Researchers at a university in Israel used 285nm emitting UV LEDs to destroy coronaviruses. This shows again that ultraviolet disinfection is an important tool in fighting pathogens and improving air quality.

While no pathogen has been discovered that is immune to ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, biofilms present a unique challenge due to their structure. They allow harmful microbes a way to protect themselves against ultraviolet penetration and are ubiquitous on Earth. Biofilms are microbial communities in a wet complex matrix attached to a solid surface. The microbes produce polysaccharides that allow them to attach to a surface, and they can be found all over the planet, including...

UVC light can effectively sanitize the air and surfaces of car and truck interiors, but there can be significant challenges. With so many people using UVC for the first time to disinfect areas, these best practices can help ensure a higher level of sanitation in any vehicle using ultraviolet germicidal devices.