Heating Concern. EU Ban On Bulbs.

Hi Everyone,

As I am sure a lot of you are aware that the EU has put a ban in place for making normal incandescent light bulbs from the start of this month (Sep 12). They can still be sold were stocks last but they can no longer be manufactured. This means that supplies of bulbs will eventually run out.

This is a concern for me because I use red bulbs to heat my scorpion tanks. I have all my bulbs attached to in-line dimmers. This means that I can dim the bulbs down or turn them up which therefore affects the temperature in the tank. All bulbs from now onwards will be energy saving bulbs. Red energy saving bulbs are available but they are rare and expensive. Also I’m not sure if energy saving bulbs give off heat, which is the main purpose for using them for my scorpions.

What are people’s opinions on heating devices? I have my concerns about heat mats as the temperature of these cannot be controlled unless attached to a thermostat. Thermostats are expensive when a large collection is being kept like I have.

Any advice would be appreciated.

BelfastScorpion.

Ceramic heating "bulbs" work well but are more expensive than normal bulbs. However they do last a long time.

You should not be worried.

1. The ban applies only to Non-directional incandescent bulbs - Directional/"spot" bulbs will be available

2. The ban is for Housing/Household lighting ONLY. It does not include specialty bulbs that can not be replaces by energy saving equivalents (this includes IR bulbs as well)

Many thanks for letting me know.

That's good news.

Just another quick question about bulbs. I use normal everyday red bulbs for my tanks. To my knowledge they are not infrared. Are these safe for my scorps or should they be infrared?

no they are not safe they will be emiting too much uv stick to real infrared bulbs i get mine from ebay, exo terra ones are the best as you know they will be real

Thanks Bex for your reply. I have been using normal red bulbs for my scorpions for over 10 years now and have never had any problems but I will change them anyway.

Hi Bex. Is it the 50W basking spot bulb you use?

Depending on the tank size if it's a large tank I go 75w-100 .but small tank I use 50

I'm using the 50's over my 5 and 2.5 gallon tanks and they keep them plenty warm.

I use stuff like this, i never understand why ppl use heating lights..

I use heat lights that don't put out visible light. So I can raise my temperatures all year round day or night without changing the natural light cycles. Therefore keeping my scorpions as stress free as possible.

Hi folks,

I have looked in to this further and it turns out that normal red bulbs are perfectly safe for scorpions. There is no UV in normal household bulbs especially the red ones.

This is good news because the reptile infrared bulbs are way too expensive. I knew deep down that they were safe because I have used these bulbs for over 10 years and had no problems at all.

BelfastScorpion wrote:

I have looked in to this further and it turns out that normal red bulbs are perfectly safe for scorpions. There is no UV in normal household bulbs especially the red ones.

How did you come to this conclusion? Did you get the bulbs tested out for wavelength?

To be honest I got advice from another forum. That does not mean that I don't trust advice given on this forum by the way lol! Plus I think if they had of been harmful to my scorpions I would have known by now considering I have been using these types of bulbs for so long. Yet my scorpions have always been healthy.

I will have to move to infrared bulbs eventually though once the ban mentioned above fully kicks in.

Thanks to everyone for your advice though.

Do normal 'household' bulbs really emit UV light ??

If what you are saying, is a proved fact, can you perhaps share more info. I'm sure the folks would be more than happy to read about it.

''The safety of incandescent bulbs has not been studied extensively, and the results reported in the literature are conflicting. In general, the emission spectrum of an incandescent lamp begins at a discrete point and then increases monotonically. The starting point, however, is under debate. Chignell et al recently demonstrated that a 60 Watt incandescent bulb will begin to emit UV at 375 nm, a point comfortably past the dangerous UVC, UVB, and UVA2 [29]. However, another study indicates that the emission spectra of incandescent bulbs begin as low as 280 nm, which would be considered a risk to photosensitive patients [28]. The discrepancy between the two is due in part to the spectroradiometers used to measure the bulb output, with the latter being far more sensitive to UV than the former.''

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2829662/

One result is pretty much within normal visible light (to us), the other is quite low and almost within the UVC range. Confusing!!

Further googling may be required lol.

Here's a couple of resources that others may find handy.

General Electric has a web page that allows display of the spectra for its light bulbs:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/learn_about_light/distribution_curves.htm

The ISO standard for determining solar irradiances describes the following ranges (http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet):

Name	Abbreviation	Wavelength Range	Energy per photon	Notes / alternate names
Visible	VIS	380 - 760 nm	1.63 – 3.26 eV
Ultraviolet	UV	100 - 400 nm	3.10 – 12.4 eV
Near Ultraviolet	NUV	300 - 400 nm	3.10 – 4.13 eV	visible to birds, insects and fish
Ultraviolet A	UVA	315 - 400 nm	3.10 – 3.94 eV	long wave, black light
Ultraviolet B	UVB	280 - 315 nm	3.94 – 4.43 eV	medium wave
Ultraviolet C	UVC	100 - 280 nm	4.43 – 12.4 eV	short wave, germicidal

DolbyR wrote:

If what you are saying, is a proved fact, can you perhaps share more info. I'm sure the folks would be more than happy to read about it.

http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/faqs/health.htm

I sent a message to John, one of the top men at Arcadia lighting (they're a company at forefront of reptile and other pet lighting) asking about whether filament lamps give off enough UV light to be a danger to scorpions. Here is my question.............

''Hi John,

I'm wondering if you can settle a discussion going on on another forum?

Do standard red coloured household incandescent bulbs emit any UV light (even minute amounts), and for that matter do the specialist reptile IR bulbs emit any UV light?

The argument is between a few scorpion keepers who are concerned about whether red bulbs, or proper IR bulbs they use to heat enclosures, will emit UV light.

Many thanks.''

His reply............

''Hi, most filament lamps emit an extremely small amount of UVA only. So anything with a filament itnis possible but only UVA and in no way enough to affect the animals in question. True infra red is invisible so not many true infra red lamps are available. Also the colour red is now not thought thoughtnto be appreciated by most inverts. They prefer blue and green. They are amazing really, there compound vision uses high quantities of UVA and they can use a chemical response to shiftnthese wavelengths in the visual field by around 100nm to make full use of these wavelengths. Very, very cool!! John''