Dear TanningBeds.org,

This may seem like a silly question, but what does a tanning lamp look like inside? I don’t want to break one open to find out because I am sure it will make a mess. Are they about the same as a regular screw in light bulb?

Thom
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Dear Thom,

Not really a silly question, and it is good to NOT break a fluorescent lamp of any kind since they have mercury in them and generally make a big mess. I saved your letter for a week so I could get one from a shipping damaged lamp, and photograph it. And while the inside may look similar to a standard screw in type light bulb, it is not. A screw in bulb provides its own resistance, so you can use either a 40w, 90w or 120w bulb by just replacing the bulb. All flourescent lamps require a ballast (current limiter). If not, they would get hotter, which makes electricity flow better, which makes them hotter….and in a few seconds it would end up with the lamp self-destructing. If you put a 160w bulb in a bed with 100w ballasts, you just get 100w out of it. Same with neon signs and high pressure bulbs, they are externally regulated. Here is the inside of a SunMaster Custom Bronzer tanning lamp, which is typical of all tanning lamps:

The metal shield is isolation, in that it is not connected to either pin. The two pins come into the lamp end, then are connected to each other via a filament. It has about 3 ohms, give or take. This is a PREHEAT style lamp end, although RAPID START ballasts will work fine with it, just not using the filament.

Preheat is the style with lamp starters, where the start cycle has the current run through the filaments on both ends for about a second, to preheat the lamps so plasma will flow inside. Rapid or Instant Start ballasts use a transformer to jump the voltage up to about 600 volts, so they don’t need to preheat the lamp, or use lamp starters. In general, rapid/instant start ballasts are a bit harder on the preheat style lamp ends because they hit it with 600v instantly, which causes the ends to “shed” some material. There is another type of lamp end for rapid start ballasts, but most tanning lamps use this same preheat style for both kinds of ballasts. Older office lights (and maybe some new ones) look similar as well.

The glass itself is pretty much clear, and the white power you see is a blend of different phosphors. Which chemicals are used determine the light spectrum, be it a tanning lamp, grow light or office lamp. And of course, there is a small amount of mercury, which makes the whole thing work by providing electrons to ionize. The lamp itself is under a partial vaccum, and what little “air” there is inside is actually argon, which is a noble gas (won’t combine with other elements).

Dennis