UVB monitoring idea

[boondyke69]

I had an idea & so far it seems to be working. I am a bit short of cash & while I plan on getting a solar meter I always wonder if the bulbs are providing enough UVB. I then had an idea & got some UV reactive beads from stevespanglerscience.com . I ordered from them because they have the most sensitive ones. They are white when in shade or inside, & very bright colors in sunlight. I put a few in each habitat under the lights & they turned color (lighter shade) but at least I know they are producing UVB.
I know this is not very scientific & I am not suggesting relying on them totally, but it does make me feel better to see them colored under the lights & if they suddenly are white one day before the scheduled replace date, I will know there is a problem & can replace them ASAP.

So what do you think?

 

[Hoj]

interesting, i would be curious to see them with a side by side with a solormeter and good and bad bulbs.

 

[ataraxia]

The thought behind this is fantastic. However, they are simply uv reactive. They are not changing colors because your bulb is emitting uvb specifically.

Place these beads under any light and you will see what i mean.

 

[boondyke69]

There is no change under a regular incandecent bulb. slight under intense black light. but in a lighted room they are white.

 

[MagicEngineer]

This is the kind of creative engineering that I love. What need to happen, is this. Someone with a UVB meter needs to do this and chart out the degree of color change in relation to actual numbers from the meter. With such a color chart in hand, those beads (if they are consistent) would be reasonably accurate.

 

[EvilLost]

I had an idea & so far it seems to be working. I am a bit short of cash & while I plan on getting a solar meter I always wonder if the bulbs are providing enough UVB. I then had an idea & got some UV reactive beads from stevespanglerscience.com . I ordered from them because they have the most sensitive ones. They are white when in shade or inside, & very bright colors in sunlight. I put a few in each habitat under the lights & they turned color (lighter shade) but at least I know they are producing UVB.
I know this is not very scientific & I am not suggesting relying on them totally, but it does make me feel better to see them colored under the lights & if they suddenly are white one day before the scheduled replace date, I will know there is a problem & can replace them ASAP.

So what do you think?

UV is a very wide band.....do the beads react to UVB specifically? If they are reacting to UVA, UVC, or otherwise, it is not telling you anything

based on the price and description on the website, unfortunately I would say likely no....but very creative idea

 

[ataraxia]

These beads will produce color under any UV radiant source. If you would like some sources of uv here is a few. http://sun1.awardspace.com/Sun_Protection/lighting.htm

Place the bead under the incandescent light within 6 inches. Sitting out in the middle of the room may have little to any effect on them. To show what i mean. Place the beads on the bottom of the enclosure and see the difference in color. Use distances that you are using from bead to bulb in the cage.

Like i said before this logic behind this idea is fantastic but sadly isnt applicable. No shade of color will reflect the amount of "uvb" the bulb is putting out.