# Black light wash and black light LEDs



## Acid PopTart (Oct 29, 2007)

Forgive me if this has been covered before, but I've searched the forums and still need some advice.

I'm needing advice on black lights, I'm needing to light the inside of my funhouse. It's 15 feet long and 7 feet wide as well as tall. I really wish I was as good with 3D modeling programs as Lord Homicide but I will try my best to describe it. I'm creating 2D scenes down each side of the walk through with cut out foam shapes that will be on a wooden frame that come out about a foot from the wall creating a foreground, the foam shapes will be 2-3 feet tall and lights and the bubble machine could be concealed behind the foreground in the wooden frame. I might recess some of the shapes and creat a middle ground. Then the walls will be painted to be the background. I want to light it all with black lights.

I was at a friend's restaurant where they had the back wall painted orange and lit with black light LEDs and then cut and painted foam shapes to look like lava rock and sticking out about half a foot off the wall. American DJ H2O light was on it as well. Beautiful effect. Has anyone else used uv LEDs like these:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...0-side-emitting-led-flexible-light-strip/867/

Any advice on which strip LEDs might be best as well as what do I need to purchase with the lights. A power source clearly.

Next I want to light down the funhouse path so I can light the 'foreground'. Yes, I could use shop lights with the 48" tubes which I did for my display a few years ago. I'm curious if anyone has used a light like this to wash a scene:
http://www.frightprops.com/lighting/black-lights/uv-wash-0682.html

Pros and cons of this light if you've used it.

Thanks for all your help.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I can't help you too much but I can help a little bit. As for the power source, you can use a computer power supply if you want. There is a website I just bought a whole bunch of lights/ supplies from and they have a waterproof 12volt supply for about 13 dollars. It would run your entire strip of 300 lights with plenty of room to spare.

Holiday Coro

For your LEDs, most here have had a hard time finding ones that are good UV LEDs and actually do what you want them to. Good luck finding good ones.


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## CreepyCanmore (Mar 27, 2007)

I've used UV LEDs quite successfully in my walk through. However I only used them in pairs running off a shared battery pack. They highlighted about a 5 X 5 area of wall when mounted on the top of the opposite wall about 4 or 5 feet away. You could light the whole wall with them but you'd have to make several AA battery packs. The bonus side effect is the soft creepy bluish light they give off. I used them as spot lights for props and they worked great for that.

I bought them in a set of 100 individual LEDs from a Chinese company. I can't find the site again but there are many to get them from. You'll also need a resistor for each LED set. I can't tell you which one as my mad scientist neighbour made them for me. There are several sites that explain what resistor to use though. I did read about it and it was fairly simple.


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## Tai95 (Sep 4, 2012)

You should look into dj companies american dj, chauvet, ect. They make serious high powered black lights for night club use. I'm sure you could find what you need.

http://www.americandj.com/ProductsList.aspx?MainId=2&Category=Black_Lights
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/dj-club_blacklights-strobes-main.html

You could even look for local dj rental companies. If you are only gonna use it a few nights a year it may be cheaper to just rent them. It will also give you a chance to see what each product has to offer before you commit to buying one.


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## typoagain (Feb 27, 2012)

Spiderclimber said:


> As for the power source, you can use a computer power supply if you want. There is a website I just bought a whole bunch of lights/ supplies from and they have a waterproof 12volt supply for about 13 dollars. It would run your entire strip of 300 lights with plenty of room to spare.
> 
> Holiday Coro


I have several of these power supplies and they are rock solid and near bullet proof. They are weather tight and have overload protection built in. I love them.

I have delt with David over at Holiday Coro several times in the past and I trust him totally. If I wanted to buy a few thousand dollars of stuff and he wanted it prepaid, I would not hesitate.

Heck, I would actually offer to prepay. This is not his day job and I would not want him to have too much money tied up in it.

Come to think if it, he would be a good guy to go to with this question. The guy knows his LED lighting.


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## itson (Sep 30, 2012)

*Mirrors*

I have always had success with Mirrors in Strategic Area's for enhancing any lighting effects. Just don't put them in any area of where it will interfere with the walking paths of your visitors/guest. Happy Haunts ! :xbones:


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Dollar for dollar / watt for watt, it's going to be hard to beat the 48" tubes for a black light wash. UV LEDs have their place, but (at least the ones I have) don't put out a ton of light in the ideal spectrum and it would be really hard to flood a room with their light. They rock for directional lighting of a single prop, though.

The fixture you pointed out has a 100W bulb, but seems a bit pricey at $150. You could pick up 4 -48" tubes and a couple of cheap shop light fixtures and you'd have 120 watts of black light power for well under 1/2 that price.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

heat heat heat.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

?? From LEDs and fluorescent lights? I wouldn't expect it to be much of an issue unless the fixture is practically against your skin. I spend a fair amount of time in a 20'x20' room lit with 24 fluorescent tubes, 48" long (yes, that is pretty much as unappealing as it sounds), but never noticed any additional issues with heat. Grabbing a '100 watt equivalent' CFL to unscrew it from the base doesn't seem to produce any great issues, either. Though maybe something I'm overlooking?


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