# difference between bulbs?



## IRTehDuckie (Oct 11, 2012)

so im short on cash, whats the difference between a home depot MVB, and a repti glo or whatever they are called i cant think of the name off the top of my head, my husband says there is NO difference, and i cant see there being one either, they are the same shape and have the same light and wattage and everything, except the home depot one is half the price.. so opinions anyone?


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## Heliopteryx (Oct 11, 2012)

What are the Home Depot ones made for? The only thing I can think of, with my minimal knowledge of lighting, is that they may have a coating of some sort on the outside that the reptile ones don't have.


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## testtudude (Oct 11, 2012)

I believe the material the bulb is made out of is the difference in the bulbs. UVB is not able to penetrate normal glass so the reptile MVB is made out of a special quartz glass that allows UVB to effectively reach your animal. It is also costed in some models to enhance UVB output. Because we can't see UVB wavelength it is not necessary to produce house hold lighting from the expensive glass. I would get a zoomed MVB mine works great.


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## Floof (Oct 15, 2012)

I don't know the science behind it, but, like testtudude said, the difference is UVB output. Blahblahblah sciency stuff blahblahblah, basically, the MVBs at Home Depot don't put out UVB. The MVBs designed and marketed for reptiles, on the other hand, DO put out UVB. Ditto with regular fluorescents VS UVB fluorescents. Also, don't forget that the UVB output degrades over time.

I think it's something to do with the coating they use inside the bulbs so that the UVB can penetrate the glass... Basically, MVB bulbs need to be replaced about once a year, and fluorescent UVBs need to be replaced about every 6 months.


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## N2TORTS (Oct 15, 2012)

Without getting tech~E 

UVB and MVB
Two totally different things. 

UVB is a type of light rays
MVB stands for mercury vapor bulb, a type of light, like a florescent or incandescent. An MVB bulb puts out stronger UVB rays and also makes heat.
The PowerSun UV is a self-ballasted mercury vapor bulb with two main components. The first is a standard incandescent filament, which is the first to light. The second is a mercury vapor arc tube, which takes a few minutes to heat up. There will be a noticeable change in hue (or color) when the bulb is completely warm and fully functioning. If your tort spends lots of time indoors with no natural lighting , don't skimp ....on lighting , use the correct bulb that fits your needs.

JD~


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## chairman (Oct 16, 2012)

Just a little bit sciency... light bulbs that use mercury vapor to create light, including both MVB and fluorescent, initially create low-energy light that we cannot see. Manufacturers coat the glass of the bulbs with substances that emit photons (i.e. create visible light) when hit by the non-visible light produced in the mercury gas. So when the non-visible light produced by the mercury gas hits the coating, voila, light we can see. 

The regular old fluorescent and MVB at home depot will be designed to emit as much visible light as possible because that's why people buy light bulbs- for visible light. The non-visible light in the UV range will be as low as possible.

Special UVB bulbs attempt to only convert UVA and UVC to visible light, leaving a big chunk of the UVB to pass through.

That'd be (roughly) the difference between a normal bulb and a special UVB one. Just about every mercury bulb out there produces UVB but most do not create enough to count for anything.


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