Hi all, here is another unscientific tidbit. About the Mercury Vapor bulbs aka UVHeat or Powersun. I just got a uv meter and the results have been interesting to say the least. I aimed it at the sun and got a reading of about 70 at 1:30 in the afternoon in CT at 1:30 pm the other day. I am unclear about the units of measure so I just used that as a sort of basis to work from. Thru the window screen the sun measured 40-45.



So, a new Powersun 100 watt measured.12 at 10 inches.

a new Powersun 160 watt measured ....40 at 10 inches.

another Powersun 160 watt(1 mo old)..52 at 8 inches.



A new 36" Reptisun 5.0 measured .....33 at 5 inches

A 1 mo old 24" Reptisun 5.0 measured.36 at 5 inches



"old" 160 watt UVHeat only measured.10 at 6 inches

"old" 160 watt UVHEAT (2 years old)...5 at 12 inches



I took several other readings of older reptisuns and they do break down. That was the real pattern I saw. It was obvious that the older the bulbs the less uv they project



I guess the moral of the story is, I think you can depend on the Reptisun 5.0 tubes and the Powersun 160 watts. Stay away from the 100 watt Powersuns as they just dont cut it, even brand new. Several others mentioned this.



There is a yahoo group set up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UVB_Meter_Owners/ and there is a database of people's results. It is sort of interesting altho non-scientific.



It is interesting to note that even older tubes still give off "good amounts" of uv when very close to the lizard, like 3 inches away. If you are using them in this manner they should be getting quite a bit of uv. The powersuns are harder as you cant get them that close as they are too hot.



FWIW,

Carole

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