>
> Home Depot (And other chains like Lowes/Menards/etc.) carry 12-inch-ish
> U-shaped bug zapper bulbs. With a couple of those you're set and you get
> the effective output of 4 lamps since the lamps are U-shaped, giving you two
> bulb lines per tube. I haven't tried "black light" bulbs before but they
> don't seem as bright (totally subjective and not necessarily a useful
> observation) as the bug-zapper bulbs. I'm sure there's either got to be
> more filtering on the "black light" bulbs vs. the bug-zappers or they're
> putting out different peak wavelengths. Either way I've used the
> bug-zappers for years and they can't be beat and they're easy to source in
> the summer, not so sure about during other months. I would be concerned
> about the "black light"-type bulbs since they may emit light that is too
> short of a wavelength vs. what the Riston films seem to like. As others
> have mentioned, the films weren't really designed for shorter UV lengths
> than 380-390 nm so if you can't see it it may be to deep a UV to work
> effectively.
>
> HTH,
> Larry
>
>
>
Traditional blacklight tubes are made of Woods glass which filters out most of the visible light, as well as some of the UV. These are the deep purple looking tubes that look black when off. Bug zapper bulbs are the same thing but with clear glass that does not filter. You can find UV lamps in the same sizes as most other small fluorescent tubes, they will have a /BL suffix, while the filtered blacklight will have /BLB. Standard lighting tubes will have something like /CW, /WW, /KB, /D, or a color temperature for the trichromatic lamps.
You might see a number like F15T8/BL, which indicates Fluorescent, 15 Watts nominal, Tubular, 8/8ths inch (1") diameter, unfiltered blacklight. An example of just such a tube is here
http://www.amazon.com/Eiko-15526-F15T8-Fluorescent-Black/dp/B000TZSQ9SI don't recall the designation for the U shaped tubes, but here's an example:
http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_043W799659110001P?vName=Outdoor%20Living&cName=PestControl&sName=Insect%20Killers&psid=FROOGLE&sid=KDx20070926x00003aYou will also need a ballast and starter correct for each lamp, one like this
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-LC1420CI-F14-Lamp-Ballast/dp/B000BO9HOK will run the little U shaped tubes as well as linear up to 20W. The starters are those little cans that plug in, you can get those at any hardware store. If you can't find sockets, you can solder the wires to them.
You might also find electronic ballasts that don't need the starter, I have a few that came from under cabinet lights, the circuit is pretty much what you'd find in a compact fluorescent bulb but the current is higher than most of those use. You can usually cheat a little and run a fluorescent lamp +/- ~50% of the nominal rated wattage but you should try to keep things close to preserve lamp and ballast life.