Quote Originally Posted by Coluber42 View Post
Radiant heat panels give off deep infrared radiation, not UV. The radiation in question is called "black body radiation", which is given off by any matter whose temperature is above absolute zero. It's in the electromagnetic spectrum, and its wavelength depends on temperature. Cooler temperature = longer wavelength, hotter temperater = shorter wavelength.

In a way, a radiant heat panel and an under tank heater and a ceramic heat emitter and an incandescent bulb all basically do the same thing: They have a heat element that has a certain amount of resistance and heats up when electricity goes through it. In a 100-watt radiant heat panel, it's a long run of coils where none of it gets all that hot, but it's spread over a large area and there's a lot of it. So you get deep infrared radiation, and a heat source that is safe to touch. In a 100-watt ceramic heat emitter, you have the same amount of power making a smaller amount of coil a lot hotter and it's concentrated in a smaller area. You don't want to touch that. The radiation it emits is still infrared, and still outside the spectrum you can see with your eyes, but it's a shorter wavelength than the RHP produces. In a 100-watt incandescent bulb, the wire that gets hot is just a teeny tiny thin filament, but it gets really freaking hot - like 4,000° F. You might say, so hot it is incandescent. Yeah, don't touch that either.
The incandescent bulb is hot enough that its black body radiation is actually in the visible spectrum, which is why light bulbs were invented. Other things get hot enough to radiate in the visible spectrum too, such as the coils on an electric stove.
UV is a shorter wavelength than visible light, so stuff has to get even hotter to produce it. Welding involves temperatures high enough to produce UV, which is part of why you wear a mask while doing it.

Fluorescent lights work a completely different way, which is why they can emit visible light and UV without getting dangerously hot. That's also why they're more efficient when you only want light and not heat. An incandescent bulb still uses most of its energy to produce heat, with only a fraction of it going toward visible light.
So ok I have a question also btw thank you for all the detail that's what I needed!

So if I have an enclosure with a RHP and a uvb bulb will that be too much radiation. Like can a pet get cancer or anything from that?


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