Dear Dennis,

I own a Sunquest 24rsp and I want to relamp it with some more intense bulbs. I was looking into VHR bulbs, since I loved the results they gave me in a salon. Would the Cosmolux VLR 100watt bulbs be ok to use in this 24 lamp bed without striping? (There are 12 bulbs in the canopy and 12 bulbs in the bench)

Thanks,
Brandon

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Dear Brandon,

There are two schools of thought on what is more intense, and I will cover both of them. First, it won’t help to put the 160W VHR lamps in your bed. How many watts the lamp gets isn’t regulated by the lamp the way it is in an incandecent lamp. Any device that uses fluorescent lamps has the power regulated by a ballast. Regardless of lamp, it will deliver 100w of power, no less, no more. You would be spending money for nothing.

Now, if by intense you mean “get red faster”, then you want a higher UVB lamp. This isn’t my preferred method, although this is extremely popular. In this case, I would go with a higher UVB rated lamp. One I just designed is the SunMaster Wildcat (disclaimer: yes, these are made by the company I work for but I know these lamps best since I am in on the design stage). They are a 8.5% UVB lamp and would time out in the 12-15 minute range in your bed.

Another way (my prefered way) would be to use a RUVA lamp. This would be similar to the VHR lamp in that it has a reflector, but is designed for the 100w ballasts. I would prefer a lower UVB reflector like the SunMaster Pro Reflector. It has a 2.6% UVB rating, but with the RUVA, comes out to about the same UVB as a typical 20 minute lamp. The big difference is in the UVA region, which would be 30% or more than your existing lamp.

UVB is what burns you, but stimulates the skin to produce melanin. UVA is what does the actual work, turning melanin brown, thus giving you a tan. If the bed is at home, there is no reason to demand a 10 minute tanning session. You are better off with daily tanning that doesn’t burn you (burn also equals risk) and that has much more actual BRONZING (UVA is the bronzing ray). As with any RUVA/reflector lamp, there is a chance of striping, but a lower UVB lamp is much less likely to stripe you, much less likely to burn you, and is more likely to give you a deeper, more sun-like tan anyway.

To give you an idea, I can use any lamp I want in my bed, but I use a 2.6% lamp because it gives me a darker tan over time. If you want quick results, the Wildcat is your best bet. If you want QUALITY results, the Pro Reflector is a better lamp. They both cost about the same, under $15 each.

Dennis