How Does a UV Light Work?

Since the germicidal properties of sunlight were discovered over 100 years ago, ultraviolet (UV) light technology has been adapted for cleaning and sanitizing. Take advantage of UV light’s germ-killing properties in your Harleysville, Pennsylvania, home by installing a UV lamp on your air conditioner or air purifier. Here’s how a UV lamp protects your home from invisible, airborne invaders.

UV light is invisible to the human eye, but if we could see it, it would come after violet on the light spectrum, hence the name “ultraviolet” light. One of the ways UV light is different from the light we can see is the way its high frequency affects organisms, such as bacteria and mold. UV light can disrupt these nasties at a cellular level, making them unable to reproduce. That’s what makes UV light useful for decontamination.

There are three different wavelengths of UV light: UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C. Only UV-C light, which has the highest frequency, can be used to eliminate bacteria and mold.

The sun produces all three types of UV light naturally. As the sun’s rays reach the Earth, UV-A and UV-B light pass through the atmosphere, but highest frequency UV-C light is filtered out. It’s a good thing too, because UV-C light is harmful to living things. Its ability to destroy living cells is what makes it dangerous and useful at the same time.

A UV lamp artificially creates UV light so it can be put to various uses, such as sterilizing and purifying. UV lamps come in many different sizes and shapes, allowing them to be used for various purposes, such as detecting counterfeit money, inspecting artwork, or by a ticket agent checking your re-entry stamp at a concert.

A UV lamp is different from a regular lamp because it’s typically made of quartz instead of glass. Inside, there is an inert gas mixed with mercury. When the lamp is plugged in, electricity reacts with the mercury, and the lamp produces UV light. The type of UV light emitted depends on the pressure inside the lamp. Not all UV lamps produce the UV-C germ-killing wavelength.

The coils on the HVAC equipment in your home — such as an air conditioner or air purifier — are prone to the buildup of harmful bacteria and mold. When these coils aren’t cleaned properly, airborne contaminants circulate into your home. This makes it uncomfortable for family members with respiratory problems, and it can aggravate allergies or asthma and also cause sickness. Using a UV lamp to sterilize the coils on your HVAC equipment has been proven to improve indoor air quality.

How is a UV Lamp Installed?

Most of the UV lamps in HVAC equipment are “stick type” lamps that can be installed inside the equipment and wired into the same electricity as the HVAC unit itself.

It is important to install the UV lamp where it will do your unit the most good. That means selecting a place where the UV light will shine directly on the unit’s coils. The parts of your HVAC unit that are not directly in the UV light will still grow contaminants.

Some HVAC units are manufactured with UV lamps already in place, but others can be retrofitted with a UV lamp. A professional HVAC technician can install a UV lamp in your HVAC equipment.

Do I Need to Maintain a UV Lamp?

The longer a UV lamp is used, the less effective its germ-killing becomes. Replacement of UV lamps in HVAC equipment is recommended every year. You can have the bulb in your UV lamp replaced at the same time as the annual maintenance on your HVAC equipment is completed.

Using a UV lamp to improve the indoor air quality in your Harleysville home is simple and effective. New Age Air provides indoor air quality solutions, including air cleaning units as well as UV lamps. Call 610-298-0271 to speak to a New Age Air representative about your indoor air quality needs today.

UVC Light Disinfection For Commercial Facilities

UVC light disinfection for commercial facilities use germicidal lamps to disinfect mold, bacteria, and other viruses. To clarify, germicidal lamps are used to sterilize workspaces and tools used in commercial facilities, such as, retail buildings, office buildings and other public assembly facilities. This method of disinfection uses a short-wavelength ultraviolet light to kill or inactivate microorganisms, consequently, leaving them unable to perform vital functions. Therefore, UVC Light Disinfection is the perfect solution to disinfect your commercial building’s many surfaces, water, and air quality.

UVC Light Disinfection Features:

Retail Buildings

Commercial Office Buildings

Arenas, Convention Centers, and other Public Assembly Facilities

Multi-Family Housing

UVC Light Disinfection Benefits:

99.9 surface disinfection

Sterilizes mold, bacteria, and viruses

Disinfects coil & drain pan

Improves HVAC efficiency

Improves water and indoor air quality

Germicidal lights are simple, effective ways to curb bacterial and viral growths. These specialized lamps produce an ultraviolet (UV) light that disrupts growth and deactivates existing growths, as a result, aiding in the disinfection of surfaces, water and more. Using one in your production facility not only can help improve everything from water and air quality but also the overall health and well-being of you and your occupants.

In conclusion, by treating the air circulating in your heating and cooling system, UV germicidal lamps can kill mold and destroy airborne viruses and bacteria that, ultimately, lead to colds, flus and other illnesses. After all, this can keep you and your employees safe and healthy.

Glossary Term: Notch Filter

A notch filter is a type of band-stop filter, which is a filter that attenuates frequencies within a specific range while passing all other frequencies unaltered. For a notch filter, this range of frequencies is very narrow.

The range of frequencies that a band-stop filter attenuates is called the stopband. The narrow stopband in a notch filter makes the frequency response resemble a deep notch, which gives the filter its name. It also means that notch filters have a high Q factor, which is the ratio of center frequency to bandwidth.

A notch filter can be either active or passive depending on the design. A passive filter is one made of only passive elements, i.e. resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Active filters contain an amplifying element, such as an op amp, which is used in some notch filters.Notch filters are used to remove a single frequency or a narrow band of frequencies. In audio systems, a notch filter can be used to remove interfering frequencies such as powerline hum. Notch filters can also be used to remove a specific interfering frequency in radio receivers and software-defined radio.

Notch filters can be created from a combination of high-pass and low-pass filters. See App Note 431: Switched-Capacitor IC Forms Notch Filter for one method of making a notch filter using a Switched-capacitor filter (SCF).

254 nm UV Lamps

Light Sources and LightTech offer high-quality standard germicidal 254 nm UV lamps in both ozone free and ozone generating solutions. The type of fused quartz used to make the body of the germicidal lamp determines the emission of the wavelength in UV 254 nm energy. Light is broken into colors and measured by wavelength in nanometers with UV light in the range of 254nm proven to eliminate bacteria, viruses and harmful contaminants. 254nm UV light is highly effective in sterilization and purification applications used to disinfect air, water and surfaces.

“L” or “Low ozone” generating lamps transmit up to 90% of their energy at the 254nm wavelength and typically utilize a doped fused quartz that blocks the emission of 185nm energy. “VH” or “Very high ozone” generating lamps are produced using clear fused quartz which allows for the transmission of energy at both 185nm and 254nm wavelengths.

The 185nm energy reacts with the oxygen in the air to produce ozone. In applications that require moderate amounts of ozone, we custom splice the two types of quartz together to form a custom “L” to “VH” ratio according to the customer’s specific requirements.

L254 nm UV lampsightSources & LightTech’s low-pressure, mercury-arc germicidal 254 nm UV lamps are specially designed to produce the highest amounts of UV radiation – where 90% of the energy is typically generated at 254nm. This radiation is very close to the peak of the germicidal effectiveness curve of 265nm, the most lethal wavelength to microorganisms. UV 254 nm light is proven to destroy bacteria and viruses by altering the DNA of the cells harmful contaminants, even microorganisms naked to the human eye. (see graph).

Our 254nm germicidal lamps are used extensively in the air and water purification markets and have been utilized in applications such as food and beverage, medical, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning), pharmaceutical, the semiconductor sterilization industries and many others. Our germicidal lamps are essential components in many municipal drinking water facilities, waste water and ground water remediation industries.