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How To Use Black Light Effects

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When you are setting up a black light effect it is important to remember how UV-reactive products work in order to get the best effect out of them. Because fluorescent paints and dyes don’t emit a lot of light compared to a ceiling lamp, their glow can be diminished or lost altogether if there is too much visible light in the room.

The light from a fluorescent black light tube becomes weaker as it travels out from the fixture. The farther you place your fluorescent object from the tube, the less UV it will receive and consequently, the weaker the effect will be. The black light tubes should be placed within a few feet of the object you will be lighting. If you are trying to cover an entire room with black lights, you’ll want to space the tubes no more than 3 to 4 feet apart to ensure even coverage.

Because sunlight contains UV radiation that will cause your fluorescent paints to fade quickly, you will need to keep all UV effects indoors, away from the sun.

There are a lot of products other than UV paint that reacts to a black light. Quinine, the ingredient in Tonic Water that gives it such a distinctive taste, will produce a green glow.

It takes a lot of power to create a small amount of black light. Incandescent black lights are not as powerful as fluorescent black lights due to the fact that fluorescent lights have a built in transformer that allows the power to be stepped up considerably. Incandescent lights are rated according to how much power they use, but a 150 watt black light will not be early as bright as a typical white 150 watt light. Fluorescent bulbs have a much longer life than incandescent bulbs. The average fluorescent will last around 10,000 hours, but the average incandescent will only last around 500 hours. If you are lighting an object or area with black light, it is important that you should use as much black light as is practical because there is no such thing as to much black light.

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