whats the brightest UV led out?

I was just talking with a guy about using LED's in side AC ducts to kill mold.
We were wondering if LED's were powerful enough to do this as they would be far more practical and safer than incandecent bulbs.

I would like to throw a couple down my car's vents...

There are specific UV products for treating air in ducts, as well as ozone units. Both are intended for institutional use and IIRC they are quite expensive. This is probably due to the high level of UV output necessary to be effective. You would also need to reasearch which specific UV wavelengths are effective against the target airborne pathogen you are targeting in this application - UV isn't "one size fits all". There is probably some published data on the UV radiation level that is effective against mold/spores.

UV LEDs only seem to go down to 360 nm or so. For sterilizing you might need something a little stronger.

Ken_McE said:

UV LEDs only seem to go down to 360 nm or so. For sterilizing you might need something a little stronger.

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Yes, you need 254nm germicidal lamps, and you're really looking at a fluorescent for that kind of job. However, keep in mind that ozone from the UV lamp is VERY corrosive to rubber seals, hoses and belts. See this article...

Have you considered germicidal fluorescent tubes? They generate lots more light than any of today's UV LEDs at about 250nm or so, the germ-killing range. They're made in standard sizes... http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q...-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wf

Oh and be very careful with shortwave UV. It wants to ruin your retinas and singe your skin and ozonate your oxygen

PhotonWrangler beat me to it!

I agree ozone is nasty stuff, I wouldn't like it in my AC system...

thanks for all the info!
I would never have thought UV could create ozone. I thought you needed an electrical arc for that.

setherd said:

thanks for all the info!
I would never have thought UV could create ozone. I thought you needed an electrical arc for that.

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Fun with ionizing radiation.

Speaking of ozone, and I've made lots of it before from HV, but those Air Ionizer purifiers that have like a 7kv spark make ozone, and that can't be healthy either. I wonder if the UV lamps make more ozone than those ionizers? Ozone has a weird sweet kind of smell to it. But it's not stable and I'm sure breathing in that smog is bad...

EDIT: after going to the link Photon Wrangler posted, I was right the Ionizer air purifiers produce a lot of Ozone. I always thought those things would be more unhealthy than good. :green: