Following are a few of the more common questions Team Wolff System receives from salon owners:
Can I use 160W lamps in my bed that calls for 100W lamps?
It’s a combination of the bed, the ballast and the lamp. A 100W ballast will only drive the lamp at 100 watts. Therefore, lamping a 100W bed with 160W lamps will not result in improved performance. To the contrary, the 160W lamp will be under-driven by the 100W ballast (if the lamp will reliably start), the ballast will run hotter due to the demands of the higher wattage lamp, and the lamp will almost certainly fail quickly… all the while, the tanners are getting substandard results.
Can I use a reflector lamp in a bed that recommends a non-reflector lamp?
Usually, tanning systems that are designed for a non-reflector lamp have greater spacing between the lamps than a bed properly designed for reflector lamps. This greater spacing allows the UV energy to “bounce off” the reflective surface behind the lamp, and then onto the tanner. Due to the geometry of a bed designed for full-coat (non-reflector) lamps, relamping with reflector lamps may give tanners results with a “striping” effect. That’s because the reflective coating on the lamp causes the energy to go in one direction instead of bouncing off the reflective surface behind the lamp. This practice may also change the thermal environment of the bed, resulting in higher temperatures on the lamp, which in turn results in reduced system output. All in all, better to stay with the manufacturer’s original bed design when re-lamping.
What is the difference between High-Output (HO) and Very High-Output (VHO) lamps?
High-Output (HO) lamps operate on 80-120W ballasts that generate respectively 800 and 1,200 milliamps (.8 to 1.2 amps). Very High-Output (VHO) lamps are designed to operate on 160W ballasts that generate 1,500 milliamps. HO lamps are utilized predominantly in tanning beds while VHO lamps are principally found in stand-up units and larger beds. VHO lamps typically produce about 50 percent more output than HO lamps, although they consume 60 percent more energy. Due to the higher power and its effect on the phosphors, VHO lamp life is generally shorter than that of HO lamps.
Most VHO lamp styles today include internal reflectors – a reflective coating on the backside of the lamp. This increases the effective delivery of UV energy compared to reflectors that are built into the tanning bed designed for non-reflector lamps. The overall increase in effectiveness is often overstated – perhaps 15-20 percent more effectiveness than a well designed bed with non-reflector lamps.
