UV led's

May 19, 2021 Last reply: 5 years ago 54 Replies

Do UV LEDs actually make enough light to kill mold?



My shower gets a lot of natural light, so pink stuff grows on the tile grout and has to be cleaned regularly. It's a nuisance.



I was thinking about a UV gadget to keep the mold dead. Maybe add it into the overhead light.


Don't you keep some old UV lamp for erasing EPROMs? No idea whether it will be strong enough though. I think there were some kitchen absorber grade lamps, one of these I had was strong enough to erase EPROMs non-reverseably.... I have been tending some roses last almost 3 years (still pretty ignorant about it) and I got something to spray against black spots, the latter turned out to be some fungus. Now if moss is fungus this might work as well; leave during the night, rinse before you get under the shower - can't do you any harm... well, not much harm anyway :).

You sort of want UVA to kill mold, I think. Most of the bright UV LEDs are around the mercury I-line (365 nm).

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

the pink stuff isn't mold, it's bacteria - serratia.

They are not short enough wavelength - good for attracting moths though.

A shinier tile grout might help. I doubt if any short wave UV light source strong enough to kill bacteria would be kind to eyes or skin.

It is more likely a photosynthetic bacterium or algae using rhodopsin type pigments. Dilute bleach solution will see it off.

I guess I can just spray it with something nasty, but a shower UV light fixture would be a cool product.

Whatever the critters, they like a lot of water and light. The other showers are fine, less light and less often used.

Stanley (Japan) among others makes 265nm UV-C LEDs. That's the same Stanley that made incandescent headlights for Japanese cars back in the day.

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I wonder if ozone might be another possible solution.

onsdag den 19. maj 2021 kl. 19.52.12 UTC+2 skrev Spehro Pefhany:

all in one neat package,

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keep humans and pets away

There's always the option of just cleaning the shower so mold and bacteria don't grow on all the dirt.

Since COVID I have spray bottles with dilute bleach strategically placed. The dilute bleach kills most nasties and it's almost free. 5:1 is okay.

UV srong enough to kill mold will also generate ozone, which you don't want.

A weak bleach solution has already been mentioned. It should work fine.

Another approach is to put a dehumidifier in the bathroom. Mold needs moisture to grow.

I don't think the natural light has anything to do with it. Mold grows happily in the fridge, which is dark most of the time.

that depends,

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I applied with a start up that was developing some UV cold cathode santiziation product this year. Guy told me during the interview one of their employees temporarily blinded themselves working on the project, like they were proud of this incident as evidence their driver board they had subcontracted to someone else was sorta working properly.

I didn't bother to follow up with them.

Eats grout over time, though.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I skiied for a few days at Aspen Highlands, with plain glass glasses. I went snowblind and had to drive home that way. It was awful.

I have a "UV burning laser". I can see it with one eye but not the other. One eys has an artificial lens, but other people see it as different colors in different eyes.

The Inuit developed special glasses to avoid snow blindness, perhaps a thousand years ago, impressive engineering for a previously Stone Age people prior to contact with Europeans:

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This is Paris Hilton's version:

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<snip>

They developed them in the same way that John Larkin develops circuits - by a lot of trial and error.

Engineering does involve having some idea about what's going on, formalising that hypothesis and testing whether it works.

If you haven't got a body of theory about what might be going on - what we call science these days - it isn't engineering, but rather craftsmanship which can produce splendid results, but doesn't generalise all that well.

<snip - I don't think Paris Hilton's version adds anything to the exposition>

John is talking about UV LED's

Depending on the tiles, there's a worse problem with bleach- it takes the color out of marble.

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