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ralphonzathew

Re:You Can Just Buy Far-UVC on Wednesday January 14, 2026 @05:22PM (#46624613)
Kr-Cl excimer lamps (the only cost effective UVC options currently available, and only manufactured via Ushio) have 2 big drawbacks:

1. Very low efficiency ($/watt and lux/watt) compared to UVA/UVB, such that cleaning a conference room between meetings, for example, results in unacceptable dead time compared to normal UV cleaning.

2. 222nm excimer lamps are a known cancer risk (official as of 2022, if I recall correctly), where the issue is that safety limits (in mW/cm^2 per 8 hour day) are based on theoretical skin absorption over a standard workday given a constant dose. Kr-Cl excimers do not produce a continuous illumination, and this intrinsic characteristic worsens with heat load. Transdermal effects are mediated via hair follicles, and shaved skin permits the greatest dose.

Even if you ignore practical safety concerns and take 1950's guidance as gospel, the time to neutralize covid via 222nm will exceed 60 seconds if the target is at the same distance a person would need to be for allowable safety.

tl;dr just put traditional UV in your hvac ductwork and skip on 222nm.

Iron nitride is much more useful as a thin film coating. Bulk magnet tech just isn't there.