Thread: Black light issues - need some help

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So, there's a small nook area just off of my living room, and I want to turn it into a beer pong room - but I want to use black lights in there. There is one ceiling light that takes two bulbs, but I've never really dealt with black lights before. Will two bulbs (120 watts each) be enough to give the black light effect? And what are the best black light bulbs to buy? Will I need to just get one of those larger, long black lights? The room is basically short and long - and if I block it off using black curtains on the window, and streamers along the entrance would that block off the outside light enough?

Any other black light suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

You can find UV compact black light bulbs - they are either spirals or truncated tubes that fit in standard lightsocket.

http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/con...blb-11w-bc.jpg

http://searchlighting.com/images/pic...blacklight.jpg

I've used two in my front hall ceiling fixture, and it worked VERY well for the black light effect. If you have a larger room, you may need to try a few more bulbs but the only way to see how well they work is to try them.

Just make sure that you don't get the cheapy "blacklight' bulbs that look like incandescent bulbs - they are not real blacklights and are dangerous as they get VERY hot. If you are paying less than $4 per bulb - it's a cheapy bad one.

Ahh, this is exactly what I needed to know, thank you! All my friends suggested I go ahead and purchased a couple of the cheap $2.99 bulbs, but it seemed a little too cheap. Thanks for the links, now I know what i should be looking for!!

I had an electrician friend of mine come out Friday to put in ceiling speakers for my daughters party and asked him the same question. He said the fluorescents are the only way to go for these kinds of things. I got 48" lights with the bulbs at lowes for $25. The internet has a 10% off floating around as well. If you don't find a valid coupon your local post office should have one in their change of address packet. Hope that helps and good luck.

I have a lava lamp that I was going to use in my black light room but the light takes too much away from the affect. The light bulb in the lava lamp is 25watt or 25 something... I think it's watt.

If I replace that with a black light bulb... would it make it a black light lava lamp? Could I find a 25 watt small bulb like that?

Suggestions?

Originally Posted by Stochey

I have a lava lamp that I was going to use in my black light room but the light takes too much away from the affect. The light bulb in the lava lamp is 25watt or 25 something... I think it's watt.

If I replace that with a black light bulb... would it make it a black light lava lamp? Could I find a 25 watt small bulb like that?

Suggestions?

I don't know that they make them that small... There is a compact UV black light like this:
Amazon.com: Chauvet Handheld Blacklight: Musical Instruments

But you would need a bulb that is the same sizing as the one you're replacing, I I haven't seen that small of a bulb.

Added to that, a lava lamp works by heat convection - the heat produced from the incandescent bulb is what makes it work. A UV or just a regular florescent bulb works at a much lower temperature than incandescent... so it may not have the heat necessary to get the lava effect.

My suggestion would be to go to an art supply store and get some colored acetate film (Art and craft supplies from TexasArt.com.) and make a sleeve (may need to do a few layers) of whatever color looks good to you and fit it over the lamp to tone down the light but still be able to see the lava effect using it's regular bulb.

Walgreens at some point before Halloween last year had a sale on the Feit spiral blacklight bulbs, I bought a few for around $6 I think it was.

I had a lot of luck with the LED blacklight bulbs too, I got a few off of ebay last year.

AH. I was afraid it'd be something like that.

Thanks Frankie's Girl!

I might look into making the sleeve...


Hey, does tonic water really glow under a UV light? Does it wear off over time?

Originally Posted by Stochey

AH. I was afraid it'd be something like that.

Thanks Frankie's Girl!

I might look into making the sleeve...


Hey, does tonic water really glow under a UV light? Does it wear off over time?

Just call me a font of useless knowledge! (well, not so useless NOW!)

Yes, tonic water glows in black light - sort of a blue/white color. It is from the quinine that makes it "tonic" water. Perfectly safe to drink too, so it would be an awesome drink mixer if you have a black light near the drink station. You would have to remove the quinine to make it STOP glowing, so it doesn't ever fade as far as I know.

Tonic water - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The quinine was added for medicinal purposes - as treatment against malaria. Tonic water can fluoresce in bright daylight since quinine is so sensitive, so it's no wonder it glows so brightly in blacklight.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

Just call me a font of useless knowledge! (well, not so useless NOW!)

Yes, tonic water glows in black light - sort of a blue/white color. It is from the quinine that makes it "tonic" water. Perfectly safe to drink too, so it would be an awesome drink mixer if you have a black light near the drink station. You would have to remove the quinine to make it STOP glowing, so it doesn't ever fade as far as I know.

Tonic water - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The quinine was added for medicinal purposes - as treatment against malaria. Tonic water can fluoresce in bright daylight since quinine is so sensitive, so it's no wonder it glows so brightly in blacklight.

Ooohh, that's fun. Do any other mixers glow under a black light, or is tonic water the only one?