Guide to UV Measurement
Characterization of Lamps
UV lamps are often described in “watts” or “watts per inch” (“watts per cm” in metric regions). Unfortunately, this is sometimes used as if it were a specification of a UV lamp! It’s really analogous to “horsepower,” giving a general idea of the power class of a bulb, but can’t tell us anything about the performance of the lamp.
In this section, we will discuss power and spectral output, two of the most important characteristics of a lamp, outside of the optics.