Ultraviolet Detection Equipment

UV Detection Equipment

by Bruce Beach

Table of Contents

Foreword
The criteria that I have established for selecting proper instrumentation is as follows:

1. is not prohibitively expensive

Professional Equipment
Professional equipment is too expensive for my pocket book (between two thousand and fifteen thousand dollars) and is often too complicated to use.

There are two pieces of equipment that help measure UVR--one on the rooftop and one in the building.

The broadband detector, which is placed on the rooftop, is a UV light meter with a quartz dome.

First, sunlight passes through the dome, strikes a black filter called a solar blind filter, and visible light is filtered out.

Next, UV light illuminates phosphor beneath the filter.

(The phosphor represents skin's reaction to UV radiation.)

After that, a photo-cell converts UV light to an electrical impulse, which travels along a cable to a recorder inside the building.

Then, the recorder measures UV intensity as minimal erythema dose (MED). (MED represents how long it takes the skin to begin burning, and erythema is the reddening of the skin caused by the dilation of blood vessels.) Finally, MED is recorded as a numeric value on a scale from one to 10+.

Diana Clarke, Editor
The Sun and Your Skin
Health and science information on life and light
www.yourskinandsun.com (Wayback Archive)

A source for this type of equipment is:
Yankee Environmental:
http://www.yesinc.com/products/data/uvb1/index.html

Build your own from scratch

You might try to build your own -
but I have never done it
and don't know of anyone else who has either.Nevertheless, here are some directions -
but I really doubt that this will work out.

http://www.ionsource.com/tutorial/capillary/uv.htm

Build your own out of UV beads

Here is another crazy idea.
These beads are quite durable -
and they can supposedly be used over
50,000 times.
You can see the difference between inside and outside
BUT -
I have no idea how one would calibrate them.
As of 2019 for $9.99 (shipping not included) you could get 250 of them here.
You could have a problem if, as another supplier says, they are subject to Hazardous Materials surcharge and require special packaging and/or must be shipped by motor freight.
This company is still in business as of 2019, check them out at:

Rainbow Symphony, Inc.
6860 Canby Ave., Suite 120
Reseda, California 91335
800 821-5122 - 818-708-8400
Fax: 818-708-8470
website: https://www.rainbowsymphonystore.com

A UV Card
The UV Card

Measure ultraviolet light intensity
Watch the scale!
$4.95A simple, reusable, credit card size device that indicates the ultraviolet light intensity.

The UV Card measures the strength of UV light (in about 20 seconds).
Good price - but I don't know -

Operation temperature: 10 ÷ 150F (-10 ÷ 50oC)
Operation humidity: 0 ÷ 95%, non condensing
Construction: ABS plastic
Battery Type: two CR2430 lithium batteries (equivalents: DL2430, 5011LC)
I am told that the batteries are readily available at places like Radio Shack
and one would want to stock a bunch of them - looking at those usage times.
The other thing is that I need to check out further
is the correlation between the scales and our charts and needs.
I think we could get these for about $100 each as a group buy.
That would include delivery to the individual members.
You might get more info at:

South Seas Trading Company

Best that I have found so far

The Safe Sun

Specifications:

Intensity: 0 ÷ 15 UVI
Dose: 0 ÷ 99 MED
Accuracy: 15% (3 ÷ 15UVI); 20% (0 ÷ 3UVI)
Basic Mode: Erythemal UV Intensity, Erythemal UV Daily Dose
Dimensions: 4.6” x 2.0” x 0.9” (115 x 51 x 23 mm)
Weight: 5 ounces (140 g.), with batteries.
Operation time:
(hours) switched on 900(hours) switched off 1800 (standby mode)

Arche Zwei - Wiederaufbau der Gesellschaft nach Grosser Katastrophe