There have been at least three people here at inspire.com who have made a home-made tanning lamp using reptile bulbs. If you search you will see the pictures.
I joined inspire for the sole purpose of asking more questions regarding these reptile lamps. Interesting was that one person who built a reptile lamp - a few years later reported he was visiting a tanning salon place. Made me wonder why he switched from his reptile lamp to using commercial taning bed businesses. Unfortunately, the person I was trying to contact comes and goes, often spending years between visits to inspire.com
I find that the people here used ZooMed ReptiSun 10.0 48" bulbs. Being concerned about dna damage (skin cancer), I instead purchased four Zoomed Reptisun 5.0 48" bulbs which are 5%. A reptile 5% bulb is more percentage than a commercial taning bed 5% bulb because the percentage is calculated differently - at least that's what I read.
There is a guy in the UK who uses an expensive spectrograph and UV meters and tests all the available reptile bulbs - because the bulb manufacturers do not release this information. His results showed that the 10% Zoo Med reptile bulb got its higher percentage by producing UVB below 303 nano-meters. His measurements of natural summer time noon day light shows that the sun produces virtually nothing below 303 nano-meters, and that DNA damage occurs from UVB below 303 nano-meters. His measurements shows the Sylvania Reptistar has the spectrum closest to natural sunlight. Sylvania does not sell the Reptistar in the USA, but he says the ZooMed 5.0 bulb has an identical spectrum.
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-tests.htm
and a better summary is here:
http://www.happyturtlespub.org/smf/i...?topic=22404.0
Some people really love their reptiles. Too bad nobody does this for the commercial tanning bed bulbs, since these bulb manufacturers rarely reveal their spectrum graphs.
So, I purchased 4 Zoomed 5.0 bulbs, and then went to Home Depot and purchased a 4 bulb lighting fixture and some chains. Total cost was under $150. I suspended the lamp over a guest bed - with approximately 7 to 8 inches between the bulbs and my chest. I slowly built up time from 5 minutes/side to 30 minutes/side. So, one hour per day under the lights - I find it is rather slow to develop a suntan.
I really don't care about a suntan, but want to produce vitamin-D. I do not have psoriasis, I just want good healthy vitamin D levels. I currently lay one to two hours in the sun. I suppose next winter I will get a vitamin-D 25(OH) blood test and see how well these bulbs are doing. I do not have psoriasis.
I estimate my reptile lamp produces a UV index somewhere between 3 to 4 which is rather weak compared to laying in the sunlight during spring/summer/fall. I think today's outdoor UV index is a 7 for comparison.
My father used to play tennis/hand-ball with a medical doctor. One day the doctor told my father "80% of medicine is unknown". Many of the studies about the benefits of higher Vitamin-D levels measured in the blood are NOT based on studies of people taking large amounts of vitamin-D pills. Most studies I have read are based on higher vitamin-d levels based on sun exposure. Thus I like to get at least some of my vitamin-D from UV light.
Affordable Vitamin D (UVB) solution
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Originally Posted by DonJuan
