UV Systems » What Is Uv?

What is UV?

UV lamps are very similar to fluorescent lamps that you see every day. The difference between a UV lamp used to sterilize water and a fluorescent lamp used to light your home or office is in the materials used to make the outside tube to hold the mercury gas inside. The outside material of UV tubes is made of quartz whereas fluorescent tubes are made of glass with an inner phosphor coating. The quartz lets UV light and some visible light pass through the glass unlike the fluorescent lamps, with its phosphor coating, blocks 100% of the UV light from escaping and only lets visible light pass through.

Ultraviolet technology disinfects your water source through a process called inactivation. The UV light (photons) gets absorbed by the DNA of the pathogen in the water being treated. The DNA is altered so that the pathogen cannot reproduce, it is essentially killed and cannot cause any sickness. Unlike chemical disinfection the organisms are unable to develop any immune mechanism against UV light. The degree of UV inactivation of pathogens is directly related to the UV dose applied to the water. UV dose is the product of UV light intensity and exposure time. NSF (National Science Foundation) has established a minimum UV dosage requirement to ensure that all bacteria, viruses, giardia and cryptosporidium are killed or inactivated to a safe level. UV lamps are known to lose approximately 20 -25 % of their UV power over their life time, usually 8,000 to 10,000 hrs. The UV dose minimum is measured at the end of the lamp life to ensure that a dose of over NSF minimum is always applied to the water.

Ultraviolet is the most cost effective, easy to use, and environmentally sound technology available to disinfect your water. It is extremely easy to verify the effectiveness of UV disinfection while it is operating and is the only NSF certifiable microbiological water purification system.

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