It's become very clear that a lot of people have been buying UVC germicidal lamps from online sellers without really understanding how to use them or that they can cause serious skin and eye damage just by exposure. Here's a simple guide to using them safely.
To sterilise a room place the lamp in a holder that will ensure that as much light as possible falls on the surfaces to be sanitised. If you put it in a table or ceiling lamp with a shade it may block most of the useful output. These lamps usually produce a lot of ozone (active oxygen) which will permeate everything and smells a bit like bleach.
Turn on the light and leave the room immediately. Make sure no humans or pets can enter the room while the lamp is lit.
Leave the lamp running for 30 minutes or more depending on the size of the room.
Enter the room and turn the lamp off immediately. Then leave the room for another 30 minutes to let the level of ozone reduce. The smell of the ozone may linger for days at a low level.
Remove the lamp and re-box. It's VERY important that the lamp and the box it's in are clearly marked to show that it is dangerous to be exposed to or look at. Store it in a safe place where kids can't find it.
The ability to sterilise a room is dependant on the volume of the room, obstructions between the light and surfaces, the power of the lamp and time. These lamps can't guarantee to protect against infection, but can help in some instances.
If you do expose your skin for long enough you will get an irritating rash or burn like sunburn. Treat as sunburn unless it's very severe.
If anyone looks at the lamp for too long with unprotected eyes the surface of the eye will be damaged and lead to an effect called arc flash, arc eye, welders flash or corneal keratitis which is often experienced by welders. After a length of time you will feel like you have sand in your eyes. It will heal up after a few days, but if in doubt seek medical attention and explain what happened.
Wearing glasses may offer some protection to your eyes, but shouldn't be a reason to expose yourself to the light.
Ignore the misleading pictures and videos from sellers who imply that you can use these lamps to sanitise your dogs fur, show pictures of the lamp next to babies or have videos of people holding the lamps. If they are actual UVC lamps then all those things pose a serious risk.
If you want to make a sterilising enclosure then you could use a cupboard or box with one of these lamps mounted inside it. UVC can't pass through ordinary glass although you can still see the blue light also emitted by these lamps. A professional unit would have a safety switch on the door that would cut the lamp off when the door is opened. If no switch is used then everyone MUST be aware not to open the cabinet when the lamp is on.
The only maintenance required for these lamps is to occasionally clean greasy fingerprints off them with an alcohol wipe. They should last a long time in intermittent use.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
To sterilise a room place the lamp in a holder that will ensure that as much light as possible falls on the surfaces to be sanitised. If you put it in a table or ceiling lamp with a shade it may block most of the useful output. These lamps usually produce a lot of ozone (active oxygen) which will permeate everything and smells a bit like bleach.
Turn on the light and leave the room immediately. Make sure no humans or pets can enter the room while the lamp is lit.
Leave the lamp running for 30 minutes or more depending on the size of the room.
Enter the room and turn the lamp off immediately. Then leave the room for another 30 minutes to let the level of ozone reduce. The smell of the ozone may linger for days at a low level.
Remove the lamp and re-box. It's VERY important that the lamp and the box it's in are clearly marked to show that it is dangerous to be exposed to or look at. Store it in a safe place where kids can't find it.
The ability to sterilise a room is dependant on the volume of the room, obstructions between the light and surfaces, the power of the lamp and time. These lamps can't guarantee to protect against infection, but can help in some instances.
If you do expose your skin for long enough you will get an irritating rash or burn like sunburn. Treat as sunburn unless it's very severe.
If anyone looks at the lamp for too long with unprotected eyes the surface of the eye will be damaged and lead to an effect called arc flash, arc eye, welders flash or corneal keratitis which is often experienced by welders. After a length of time you will feel like you have sand in your eyes. It will heal up after a few days, but if in doubt seek medical attention and explain what happened.
Wearing glasses may offer some protection to your eyes, but shouldn't be a reason to expose yourself to the light.
Ignore the misleading pictures and videos from sellers who imply that you can use these lamps to sanitise your dogs fur, show pictures of the lamp next to babies or have videos of people holding the lamps. If they are actual UVC lamps then all those things pose a serious risk.
If you want to make a sterilising enclosure then you could use a cupboard or box with one of these lamps mounted inside it. UVC can't pass through ordinary glass although you can still see the blue light also emitted by these lamps. A professional unit would have a safety switch on the door that would cut the lamp off when the door is opened. If no switch is used then everyone MUST be aware not to open the cabinet when the lamp is on.
The only maintenance required for these lamps is to occasionally clean greasy fingerprints off them with an alcohol wipe. They should last a long time in intermittent use.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Last week a bunch of NFT bros assembled a nft party and some of them went blind due to some "problem with the lights" turns out they were using this type of light for the lighting!
(Well, this is the type of mistake you cam expect from people who are willing to pay thousands for a .jpg)
Alguiem ha mirado las sabanas de la cama AL MICROSCOPIO. antes y despues de La EXPOSICIÓN A LA LUZ Ultravioleta mata bacteeias? La que hace mal olor. Yo la tengo
Finally got myself one of these lights, purely because I just wanted one, but also because I'm sure the stupid people will probably have it banned soon because little johnny blinded himself because his parents weren't smart enough to keep it locked away or something… 😛
Running the uvc light with ozone for 30 minutes then exhausting air for hours or more will that type of on time with the light on damage house plants??
I've heard that ozone can be very dangerous to humans. How are these lamps with ozone safe at all?
I bought one of these from Amazon a few days ago as I needed something to sterilise the inside of some food delivery bags though I have used it in a couple of rooms in the flat, it is one that produces ozone as well so when using it in the food delivery bag application I have to be a little careful as the bags seem to contain the ozone when zipped shut.
Keeping the box and marking it with a Sharpie to say the lamp is dangerous was a good idea, though I live alone I wouldn't want guests finding it and plugging it in though all my lamp holders bar one test socket I keep are bayonet cap whereas the lamp is E27 so I use an adaptor
When I reviewed the lamp on Amazon I suggested anyone wanting to buy and use one should search for this video and your others on these lamps so they are aware of the hazards of being exposed to UVC and high quantities of ozone that some of these lamps do create
Usually Im obsessed with the comments, but These are the length of a small novel. 😮
I use A UVC lamp to kill mytes and flee in the chicken coup. Not even the spiders survive!
Crap
Thank u for this
Personally, have you got Arc eye from UVC lamps?
As a 14 year old, I got a UV-C germicidal lamp just for fun. I got it a few months ago, and I've had no problem with my eyes or whatever so far, even though I got no safety. What I do is try to point it away from me and only have them on for a very limited amount of time, instead of playing around with it for like 10 minutes straight. What I'm using is a single tube light that is 8W, 220V.
Can you pls recommend uvc bulb or lamp in the UK because i do not even find one.Lots of fake shits around the internet and i do not have money just to throw it out of the windows.
Recently been looking for a good UV box for disinfecting stuff like those disposable face masks, maybe car keys, etc. But there are SOO many out there and a lot look sketchy. Either some cheap blue lights that probably aren't UV or maybe ones that wont work for very long. Or some that are VERY expensive like the Philips UV box for like $99 US dollars.
I also have one of those LED flash lights that is supposedly UV. But when tested on something like a $100 US bill it doesn't seem to show anything out of the ordinary so no idea if it's really UV or what.