Looking for real Blacklight bulb

[houtex]

I bought 2 different brand Blacklight bulbs .Got'em home,tried'em out, no glow.Niether will illuminate the glow paint.All they are is a poor quality purple light.I'm in charge of decorations this year(Halloween).is there a cheap uv bulb or lamp that I can walk in and get.I'd rather not online it if I can avoid it.

 

[Ken_McE]

Have you looked into the UV fluorescent bulbs? Will work in any fluorescent fixture, reasonable results.

 

[luminiferous]

+1

I'm a home haunter and I don't bother with the incandescent blacklight bulbs anymore. Their not producing true UV light, you need a florescent blacklight for that. Glow in the dark stuff will come alive with these. You can get florescent blacklight tubes at Home Depot or one of the other home centers might have them as well. They're quite a bit more expensive then a regular tube, but not ridiculous.

One year I found CFL blacklights at a Halloween party supply store. You could also check some place like Walmart.

I know you don't want to order online, but depending on where you live and what's around to choose from, there my not be any other choice.
Here's a place to buy them for $10 each (that's less than I paid 5 years ago).

http://e3living.com/node/132

 

[LED-FX]

Blacklight blue CFL lamps are just the thing, party stores , disco/music equipment type shops or mebbe helpful electrical wholesalers.

Or standard fluro fitting and a black light blue tube, Blacklight,BL in catalogues, is actually a fish tank tube that looks blue white, for special effects you want BlackLight Blue,BLB.

Cheers
Adam

 

[houtex]

I was hoping to find a CFL in stores but no luck.What I did find was a whole florescent fixture at BigLots for less than 20 bucks.I'll order some CFL's as I've read good reviews on them.Thanks.

 

[LED-FX]

Great guide to blacklight effects:

http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/Lighting/blttip_BlackLightTips.html

Cheers
Adam

 

[LEDite]

Here it is:

Cree 3W UV LEDs.

Larry