This was something I didn't discover until this year, and I see a bunch of new haunters starting up, so I thought I'd post this as a public service.

There is really no such thing as an incandescent black light bulb for the purposes of a home haunter. A true black light is going to be the skinny fluorescent tube. They can be purchased in short portable sizes, but they will always be the fluorescent tube type (some are the compact spirals that can be used in regular sockets, but they are still the fluorescent kind). The best kind (used for theatrical and professional levels) are mercury vapor black lights, which use a UV emitting phosphor and an envelope of Wood's glass, but are very expensive.

The rounded bulbs that are sold in huge numbers around Halloween are not true black lights:

A black light may also be formed by simply using Wood's glass instead of clear glass as the envelope for a common incandescent bulb. This was the method used to create the very first black light sources. Though it remains a cheaper alternative to the fluorescent method, it is exceptionally inefficient at producing UV light (a mere few lumens per watt) owing to the black body nature of the incandescent light source. Incandescent UV bulbs, due to their inefficiency, may also become dangerously hot during use.

ALL OF THESE BLACK LIGHTS GET VERY HOT. They will be much hotter than normal light bulbs, and can be dangerous if too close to dry or flammable sources. They will melt plastic, and I actually
had an outdoor light fixture made of thick plastic warp and bubble due to one of those bulbs in it for 5 hours - which was amazing since the put out so little light.

"Soft" ultraviolet light in the UVA (where most black lights are) may cause wrinkles and skin cancer. Slightly "harder" UVB causes sunburn.[1] UV doesn't trigger our pupillar reflexes and might potentially cause opacification of the eye lens risking cataracts. This may occur after a life's worth of normal sunlight as well but might put night-club workers at risk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light for more info.

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I'm a Halloween Bride! 10/31/2002

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Yep, I learned the same thing just this year about what a TRUE blacklight is or isn't.

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"Scare me once, shame on you. Scare me twice ... you'd better run like hell."

Last year we picked up a black light in the form of one of those spiral fluorescent bulbs that screw into a standard light socket. Works very well, and gives you the best of both worlds! For heavy-duty black lights, I bought a bunch of 48" fluorescent tubes from Lowe's & some cheap ($10) shop light fixtures. Bunches more light for about the same price as a little 16" system from Spencer's.

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"Well I guess they were wrong then, weren't they?" I-gor
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Thanks, FG....I got only two of those really cheap ones from walmart, and thought that maybe they were defective -- or just realy cheap! Guess I'll have to spend more than that buck fifty.

That's what I like to use. They are nice and small and relatively cheap (around here they are $5-$6 for the 13w variety). I do have the bigger 24" and 48" tubes, but they are sometimes hard to mount where you want them. With the spirals all you have to do is replace the regular incandescent bulb in the table lamp or overhead hall lamp and you are ready to glow.

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just to let everyone know that I learned the hard way there are also two diffrent types of florecent blacklights I ordered a case of them from granger for my work haunt. They offered 48" blacklight for $20 each and 48" blacklight blue glass for $28 each. So I ordered the cheaper ones and when I opened the box they looked like regular florecent tubes and they put out alot of extra white light. So just male sure when you order them you get the ones with the blue glass

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I used to have super powers until my therapist took them away.

LV Scott T - I bought a bunch of damar compact flourescents this year and I have to agree - they work great! At 25 watts they stay cool and side by side to a 48" that I have, the compact puts out much more black light. I highly recommend them not only for their output, but the size makes them much more "user friendly" and can be protected a little easier from breaking than a 4 foot tube can.

Those compacts are awesome!

John

Has anyone seen a STROBE BLACK LIGHT?

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Hail! Hail! Queen of Darkness! Ancient Hecatate! Weels are turning, cauldrens stirrin, stirrin. Hail Hail!"
Scary Naked Pagan Master



http://www.blogcrypt.com/JACKREAPER/

http://www.sinisterspace.com/MikeB
Updated 7-27-06

Nope, but there are two solutions.

1. you can always use a colour filter in front of a regular strobe light.

2. use a regular DMX controllable UV LED light. You can set the light to flash via a DMX controller. UV LED's will allow for the rapid on/off you'd need.

The first option is the cheapest.

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Some options....

Both these UV lights already have a built in "Slow/Fast" programs. They are also DMX controllable.

American DJ


http://www.americandj.com/product.as...1731&cat=L.E.D.


Chauvet

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtu...beuv_fix.shtml


The LED Shadow is the more affordable one of the two lights, but not by much. Both around the $200 range.


There a few other options along the same lines, but none of them are as affordable as going with a simple UV colour filter over a regular strobe light, but the light and colour output might not be to your liking when going that route.

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