tanTALK - Tanning Salon Business Owners Community - View Single Post - Need help troubleshooting and info on bulb wattage

Brian Oshman · 05-05-2010, 07:27 PM

They are 100 watt. That is just marketing. Real 120 watt lamps are 79" long. Wattage is consumption, not output. UV is measured in mW/cm² so only roughly 15 to 20 mW (milliwatts) are being output from the lamp in tanning power and the rest is a by product of visible light, x-ray, and infrared.

The ballast determines the wattage, the lamp wattage determines its tolerance to the operating range of the ballast that is driving it. It does not work like incandescent lamps, any lamp will only run at 100 watts in there. Plan on spending eternity under there because the lamps are probably shot. They will still light but not have any real useful output. Besides, there are only 8 lamps. Not too many photons being emitted from such a small array.

If you want to spice it up a little PM or call or e mail me for an order. One lamp at a time is a waste because it will cost three times as much to ship the lamp than the cost of it and it will cost the same in shipping to ship all of them as it will just one. Replacing one lamp is a waste of time. You will need to replace them all or you are just wasting your time and money.

05-05-2010, 07:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
Brian Oshman Guest Join Date: Apr 29 2001 Location: Stewartsville, NJ Age: 44 Posts: 3,122 Rep Power: 0	Re: Need help troubleshooting and info on bulb wattage They are 100 watt. That is just marketing. Real 120 watt lamps are 79" long. Wattage is consumption, not output. UV is measured in mW/cm² so only roughly 15 to 20 mW (milliwatts) are being output from the lamp in tanning power and the rest is a by product of visible light, x-ray, and infrared. The ballast determines the wattage, the lamp wattage determines its tolerance to the operating range of the ballast that is driving it. It does not work like incandescent lamps, any lamp will only run at 100 watts in there. Plan on spending eternity under there because the lamps are probably shot. They will still light but not have any real useful output. Besides, there are only 8 lamps. Not too many photons being emitted from such a small array. If you want to spice it up a little PM or call or e mail me for an order. One lamp at a time is a waste because it will cost three times as much to ship the lamp than the cost of it and it will cost the same in shipping to ship all of them as it will just one. Replacing one lamp is a waste of time. You will need to replace them all or you are just wasting your time and money.