highest output reading ever!

[Beat]

On another thread we were talking about these amazing readings:





these meters comes out from a 500 watt lamps mounted on rounded glass reflectors driven by 500watt ballast





The bed is sold since a couple of years here in Italy they are just in a middle of restyling it actually is

[dcjjp2]

Who is it made by? I hate the fan "tacked" to the canopy.

[HBT6872]

Mattress version?

[Don]

First of all, one of the meters shown by Beat (186.8) uses 315 nm - 400 nm for the UVA range.

Next, almost all of the Italian "overlap absorption filter" systems have the "strangely high" peaks at 352 nm and 364/365 nm that "skews" the readings in both meters.

When you "factor out" these "artifacts" you will find that the "adjusted reading" is about 90 to 110. [Note: I went back and looked at some old data and "factored out" the spikes to determine the amount that these "artifacts" add to the "strangely high" readings.]

Hand-held radiometers are valuable tools for determining lamp aging but they don't tell you when you have "artifacts" (spikes) that have no impact on tanning power.

Why is this important? Because, IMO, these "spikes" are probably the cause of the "hot spots" that you feel in some HID/hp systems.

[solarmeter®]

Both meter pics in THIS thread are the regular Model 5.0 Total UV (280-400nm). In the top pic (186.8) it is "hiding" inside it's genuine leather carrying case made from India cows.

The "off brand" meter in another thread reading 500 something to big 1000W+ lamps would be the Euro 315-400nm "UVA" pic. The 5.0 HP meter would read approximately the same 500 ish.

In either case.... subtracting out the "spikes" would of course lower the readings. But the spikes are still there - and they do "count" as part of the readings... regardless of their tanning power or lack of such.

As for "hot spots" I assume you don't mean heat - because you can't "feel" UVR spikes (unless they cause erythema 12-24 hours after exposure).

Maybe someday mercury will be outlawed in vapor lamps, like it already is in car parts and other consumer products. Then there would be no "mercury line" spikes to worry about. The sun doesn't have big UV spikes because it is not an MV lamp. How about "super quiet" Zenon arc lamps haha.

Meantime, suffer the spikes gladly... because they ARE there and they DO excite UV meter photodiodes (and spectralradiometer photomultiplier tubes).

[Don]

When I went into a Japanese "communal" bath I learned that President Lincoln was wrong; all men WERE NOT created equal-LOL.

The same is true with UVR, i.e., all wavelengths are not alike in their tanning power. The "extraneous" peak at 352 nm is, I believe, an "artifact" of the some of the "overlay" Italian absorption filter and the 364/365 nm peak is simply an "enhanced" mercury line (i.e., 253.7; 312.7; 364/365; 404; 434/435 and 545/550). I agree that they "are there" and are integrated into the reading but they offer little or nothing of benefit (except for "bogus" marketing claims).

Regarding PMT's, these "strangely high" wavelengths forced me to characterize and calibrate a smaller aperture opening that I use when measuring these systems.

[solarmeter®]

Yeah - been in one of those "spa" baths at a resort near Mt Fuji. You're right.

I forgot that 352nm is not a mercury line. But it does happen to coincide with where "traditional" fluorescent tanning lamps peak... so it must have some tanning ability. The 365-400nm range is better, as the new era lamps have shown.

[solarmeter®]

And oh by the way.... the "highest output reading ever" was posted by M&C on the old TanToday. He took a pic of 5.0 HP meter reading 535 mW/cm² on some kind of a super duty SunBoard.

Wish I'd saved the thread or at least the pic so I could post it here. Alas it is long lost in cyberspace. Probably also erased or superceded in Marty's digital camera too.

[bsne]

nah....

Picture is still there.

A 352 Nm actually will still tan quite well with a bit more zip.

The picture Vito is showing however is using a 500w lamp combined with a 500 watt ballast and the one thing that he did indeed teach me is not all ballast are created equal. The amps of the ballast will also affect the output TREMENDOUSLY. Combined this with the efficiency of a well tuned glass reflector and you have one heck of a tanning machine.

Don,

No matter what meter..spectroscope or whatever instrument is you would like to measure with (perhaps the guy NEXT to you at the bath?) the above bed tans like a mofo.

[Beat]

At this point I'm intrigued too. It tans great an the meters confirm it now I've discovered that is manufacturer had the ability to spike out some numbers . My trust in science and Steve's meters are fell down.

It will be a chance for Don to meter it with his intruments. Do you plan to fly in Italy in the future or someone would invest few thousand $ to pick up this unit in US

Ciao,

Vito

[solarmeter®]

Vito,

You worry over nothing!

bed tans like a mofo

It tans great an the meters confirm it

Forgettabout the SPIKE thing. All HP lamps have spikes. ALL UV meters pick up the spikes. So what?

If you want to subtract them out, ANY spectralradiometer (properly characterized and not aperture saturated) can do that. Doesn't someone you know in Italy have a spectralradiometer?

And even if you did that and got a lower irradiance sum, you would have to run around testing every other kind of HP lamp and subtract out their spikes too. Then you would be virtually back to ground zero. What would you have learned? Nothing unless one particular brand has magically doubled a spike or two compared to all the others. I kinda doubt that... but I've been known to be wrong once or twice in 15 years.

And even if you found taller spikes in this particular lamp cassette, who is to say that these spikes are not indeed helping the bed "tan like a mofo"? Don says they don't tan "much" but I say they do tan "some". Guess it depends on what the definition of much and some is. *(^_^)*

.

[Natureboy]

I thought they worship cows in India?

[Beat]

Steve,

I've tried your meter on my unit



Don, this unit isn't italian, but it spikes too.

Vito

[solarmeter®]

I thought they worship cows in India?

That's what I thought too. When I asked the leather maker a couple years ago he said "nah... only the Hindu's do that....they are a minority over here."

Where's the Indian PETA? Cow wars?

Beat: Wow 416 mW/cm² at or near the glass. What kind of bed is that from? Did you "feel" a spike pierce your hand? Oooo-ouch!
.

[engfant]

WOW, that's 416 on the 5.0???? I didn't even think they read that high???? That'd be like a punch in the face!

[Brian Oshman]

That's the 5.0HP. It is modifyed to read past 199.9. It leaves the decimal off so the display will show the higher readings since the first digit will only display a 1.

[solarmeter®]

It goes from 0-1999 mW/cm² with no decimal point.

Egg can't find one of those USED on ebay! They are only available NEW by very special secret order haha.

Or you can change R6 on the 5.0 meter PCB from 27K to 2.2K and make one yourself like Marty did.

[Brian Oshman]

Yeah,

But you need an additional 5.0 to calibrate against.

[Drew]

Too bad that bed looks like a Mexican Farm Pickers truck.

[solarmeter®]

Brian: yeah I still need a table top modern HP cassette that runs on 110V wall plug to make sure the 5.0HP matches the 5.0 regular up to 199 mills. Please send me one. URI John never did.

Werd: indeed the Magic 636 and it's mattress cousin are MUCH prettier.... as are several other HP makes over here in the USA.

Beat: you need to have that mfgr in Italy do an Ergo-style extreme makeover. But keep those 500W cassettes with 500 mA ballasts. Don't use some giant 480000000000000V transformer with taps.

And watch out for those spikey things!