Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: neilep on 02/04/2008 19:31:39

Title: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: neilep on 02/04/2008 19:31:39
Dear Bright Sparks,

Here's some light !!

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Not much happening there......the only thing it might excite is a delinquent moth or two !!

Now here's a slightly bigger bulb exuding ultraviolet light.

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Impressive eh ?...being delivered next Tuesday !


As I understand it...Ultraviolet Light is like....well  more active than your regular bog standard light !!...so.....pending skin melanoma........ is there a way to harness this more active light ?....Presumably it's more efficient at discharging energy yes ?...or no ?


ta

luff ya

neil
UV Light Enquirer
xxxxxxx

mwah mwah mwah mwah !!




Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: Karen W. on 02/04/2008 20:15:39
you  mean harnessing it to use it in other ways?
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: neilep on 02/04/2008 20:20:30
you  mean harnessing it to use it in other ways?

Yes..yes..harness it (yee haarrr)...to utilize it's excitable energy for power consumption luff and joy !!
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: Karen W. on 02/04/2008 20:29:55
Hummmm I wonder what kind of things it could run? LOL.... Do you know what causes it to be more excitable maybe that would help to redirect its energy to other things... How do we get Ultra violet light anyway?
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: another_someone on 02/04/2008 22:15:26
UV, in terms of energy, sits between visible light and X-rays (soft gamma rays).

What are you thinking of using it for?  UV solar panels?  I am not sure what the spectrum of solar panels are at present (if they are glass covered, then the glass might block the UV).
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: DoctorBeaver on 02/04/2008 22:19:40
UV causes sunburn, doesn't it? So, couldn't it be used to heat things? Could Neil build a UV oven to heat up his family's pizza?

(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbestsmileys.com%2Feating1%2F2.gif&hash=90043e3f85c1a3f1f2dd64d356151f04)
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: syhprum on 02/04/2008 22:37:04
Having just returned from being cooked at 39°C at the Melbourne F1 meeting and being irradiated with UV I certainly wish someone could find a way of putting to some good use.
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: neilep on 02/04/2008 22:44:27
Hummmm I wonder what kind of things it could run? LOL.... Do you know what causes it to be more excitable maybe that would help to redirect its energy to other things... How do we get Ultra violet light anyway?

I know not how it's more excitable.....I know not how we get it !

Glad I could help !! [;D]
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: neilep on 02/04/2008 22:50:14
UV, in terms of energy, sits between visible light and X-rays (soft gamma rays).

What are you thinking of using it for?  UV solar panels?  I am not sure what the spectrum of solar panels are at present (if they are glass covered, then the glass might block the UV).

Thank You George.

I have no idea of what use it could be used for but I gather that if you take a portion of regular light** and a portion of UV light....that UV Light has more energy.....pound for pound ! [:)]


** I do realise that 'regular light' probably does not stand up to scrutiny as a recognised and accepted term...but hope that you know what I mean !!
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: neilep on 02/04/2008 22:51:12
UV causes sunburn, doesn't it? So, couldn't it be used to heat things? Could Neil build a UV oven to heat up his family's pizza?

(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbestsmileys.com%2Feating1%2F2.gif&hash=90043e3f85c1a3f1f2dd64d356151f04)

We've recently converted from Pizza Hut to Papa Johns !!
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: neilep on 02/04/2008 22:53:18
Having just returned from being cooked at 39°C at the Melbourne F1 meeting and being irradiated with UV I certainly wish someone could find a way of putting to some good use.

As an F1 fan I have to say this post makes me ooze green-stuff out of my backside !!.....

At least next year they'll be no adverts on the BBC !!
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: another_someone on 03/04/2008 02:25:30
UV causes sunburn, doesn't it? So, couldn't it be used to heat things? Could Neil build a UV oven to heat up his family's pizza?

The problem is the trade off between deep heat and surface heat.  Even IR has a problem penetrating very deep, and by the time you get to UV, it is shallower yet.

Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: DoctorBeaver on 03/04/2008 08:37:44
UV causes sunburn, doesn't it? So, couldn't it be used to heat things? Could Neil build a UV oven to heat up his family's pizza?

The problem is the trade off between deep heat and surface heat.  Even IR has a problem penetrating very deep, and by the time you get to UV, it is shallower yet.



He'll have to give up the deep-pan pizzas then.
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: lyner on 03/04/2008 11:08:31
It is already ' harnessed' by soap and pigment manufacturers. Dayglo materials use phosphors to convert UV to visible light and this produces unnatural colours. Whiter than white clothes may look that way because UV light is used in the same way.
The fact is that, for large scale use, UV isn't a source of much energy because (lucky for us) there isn't a lot left when sunlight hits the Earth's surface.
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: lightarrow on 03/04/2008 15:27:36
For our luck, nature already harness most of the higher energy solar UV light into making ozone from oxygene; we would all be dead if this didn't happen.
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: RD on 03/04/2008 18:31:37
UV light can be used as a disinfectant
http://www.excelwater.com/eng/b2c/water_tech_3.php
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: Karen W. on 03/04/2008 20:52:01
Thanks Rd that answered my question about what they are and where they come from... LOL...
Title: Re: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: Karen W. on 03/04/2008 20:56:31
They used them in a horticulture lab where I worked under Ultra violet lamps in these enclosed booths .. the fan ran inside pushing all the air from inside to out while the new air coming in from the back vent was filtered through the booth and under the UV light.. was supposed to aid in killing bacteria and contamination on the lilies we were cross breeding ... The tissue culture process was pretty fragile business and it did not take much to contaminate a whole batch if you were not careful!
Title: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: techmind on 06/04/2008 17:31:46
UV, in terms of energy, sits between visible light and X-rays (soft gamma rays).

The issue here, Neil, is that UV is "higher energy" than "regular visible light" per photon. (And for the purposes of the question, the "higher energy" is no more so than the difference between visible red and visible blue.)

The sun still emits vastly more visible photons than UV ones, and quite a lot of the UV gets absorbed by our atmosphere anyway.

At the earth's surface, there's far more total energy (i.e. number of photons X photon energy) in the whole visible range than there is in the small amount of UV.

The fact that UV is much more biologically dangerous than regular visible light has more to do with its photon-energy exceeding certain biological thresholds, than any expression of awesome power!


The plot here:
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/images/4/4c/Solar_Spectrum.png
shows the solar spectrum in Watts per square meter per nanometer(wavelength).
You can clearly see that the bulk of the energy is in the visible region (700-400nm).
Title: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: RD on 09/04/2008 18:11:39
They used them in a horticulture lab where I worked under Ultra violet lamps in these enclosed booths
Did you get a free tan ? [:)]  http://www.helionova.co.uk/vertical.asp

PS
regular fluorescent lights use UV created by electrical discharge in mercury vapour.
The white coating on the bulb absorbs invisible UV and emits this energy as visible light.
Title: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: lyner on 10/04/2008 17:11:22
For our luck, nature already harness most of the higher energy solar UV light into making ozone from oxygene; we would all be dead if this didn't happen.
That's a bit anthromorphic, for you, lightarrow! It almost reads as if 'she' wants us to survive.
lol
Title: Can We Harness Ultraviolet Light ?
Post by: lightarrow on 10/04/2008 22:56:46
For our luck, nature already harness most of the higher energy solar UV light into making ozone from oxygene; we would all be dead if this didn't happen.
That's a bit anthromorphic, for you, lightarrow! It almost reads as if 'she' wants us to survive.
lol
Maybe the word "harness" has a more anthropomorphic meaning than what I understood; I intended that nature "uses" UV to make that chemical reaction; the fact, then, that we are protected from that process, is incidental.