One of my many geeky passions is comic books. I have a large collection. In my new place (still under construction) we are actually building in a dedicated library/comic room. I will have two light fixtures in there - a three bulb ceiling fan and a three bulb track/directional thingie that will be aimed at a large 14ft long "book-case wall". We are using CFLs through out the rest of the house as LEDs sadly are still pretty much out of price range (although getting better!). The room with all the books is pretty much the only place I still pefer to use incan bulbs because I have noticed (and read about) the way CF lighting bleaches out and damages the color and print on book paper and posters and will likely damage my posters, art and books displayed on the walls and shelves. I cant seem to find any info on whether or not LED light bulbs will have a similar effect. Anyone know? If I can confirm that LEDs don't share this CF problem then I may have to spend the $7.99+ each for six LED bulbs for my new "Library".
CFL emit a lot of UV, whereas LED emit almost none...and UV is the main bogie as far as document damage.
Visible light also causes damage, but at a slower rate though, so, at museums for example, they make cases or display panels, etc, from a UV filtering material or add a film of UV protection, etc, and, limit lux levels when practical. (Comic book inks, etc, are susceptible to vis and UV damage)
If you have a light meter, you can try to keep the lighting ~ 50 lux or so for long term lighting, but measure during periods where sunlight might be present on the items as well. (Some use ~ 50 - 150 lux as their limit, depending upon the chemistries)
Light meters are not going to tell you what the UV exposure will be, unless you have a UV meter....but, CFL are bad for preservation. There are UV sleeves for full sized commercial tubes, for this purpose, but I have not heard of a CFL specific UV sleeve-like solution.
If the room is closed with the lights off when not in it admiring your collection, no exposure might be occurring (drawn curtains/dark when not in use, etc...), which reduces the cumulative impact of light. Light damage is cumulative and not reversible by recovery periods, so, conservation typically involves trying to limit vulnerable materials to less than 50,000 lux hours per year of exposure.
So if you limit the lighting to 100 lux, and, only illuminate your collection for 10 hours every weekend, that's 52 x 10 x 100 = 52,000 lux hrs of exposure, sort of your ball park limit typically. (You'd need a 2 week vacation from the collection...)
If the objects have light on them 7 days a week for 10 hrs a day, then you'd be at ~ 700 k lux hours, and things would be fading more rapidly (14 x faster), etc.
Cutting the level of illumination to 50 lux would double the cumulative exposure time that you could typically tolerate, raising it to 150 L would reduce the acceptable exposure time proportionally, etc.. For comic books, going over these limits would accelerate deterioration....as NO light is "good for them".
The darker you can make it when not viewing, the better. The more UV screens/films etc, you can protect them with, the better, etc. If it could be pitch black EXCEPT when looking at stuff, the lighting when looking can be brighter, and so forth...if the cumulative "looking time" is limited.
