How Does UVC Disinfection Work?

How Does UVC Disinfection Work?

UVC disinfection working against COVID-19 virus
UVC disinfection helps kill germs in the air.

UVC disinfection has gotten a lot of publicity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It makes sense – many people are looking for better and chemical-free ways to kill germs and stay healthy. With many of us more aware of our health and the risks of airborne germs than ever, a lot of people want to know what solutions exist for cleaning the air from harmful pathogens like bacteria and viruses. 

The good news is that UVC disinfection through UVPhasors allows you to provide continuous disinfection of the air you breathe inside your building without using harsh chemicals, needing more labor, or making customers change their behaviors. This way, you can protect people in your building from diseases. 

Of course, you might be wondering exactly how UVC light disinfection works to kill germs. This is a disinfection method for air, water, and non-porous surfaces that we have used and leveraged for decades in things like healthcare and wastewater treatment settings. Now, UVC disinfection is available to all businesses and commercial buildings which can serve as hot spots for airborne germ transmission. In this article, we’ll discuss UVC light disinfection and how it works. 

Become Farlite protected today – get in touch now to request pricing customized to your facility. 

UVC Disinfection: a Chemical-Free Way to Kill Airborne Germs

One of the major concerns about killing germs is the need for chemical disinfectants. These can cause many issues. For instance, the fumes can be really noxious and potentially irritating. Contact with the skin or eyes can also cause things like burns and irritation. Even once dry, these chemical disinfectants can leave behind residues that may also be harmful. As such, many people are looking for safer, chemical-free alternatives for killing germs. 

Additionally, using traditional disinfectants requires extra labor. Businesses need to assign employees or hire a third party to clean off surfaces, apply disinfectants, and allow them to sit for the proper dwell time to kill germs. Not only that, but this form of disinfection doesn’t even affect airborne pathogens. 

Instead, UVC disinfection offers a chemical-free, continuous disinfection solution with no extra steps for your team. This indoor air disinfection option uses a special wavelength of light to kill germs as they float through the air. It’s completely safe for occupied spaces and all you do is have our team install the lights and you’re good to go. 

What is UVC Disinfection?

UVC disinfection is a method of disinfection that uses ultraviolet radiation, like what comes from the sun. There are several types of ultraviolet rays, including UVA, UVB, and UVC. UVA and UVB are the rays that you might associate with sunburns and wrinkles. UVC is another type of light that the sun also gives off, but it usually doesn’t reach the earth. UVC light has a very short wavelength, which means there’s a lot of energy packed into this type of light. That makes it work really well for killing germs. UVC disinfection uses UVC rays to kill pathogens so they can’t make people sick. There are several ways to use UV light disinfection, including to disinfect the upper air of a building or a room in a building. 

How Does UVC Disinfection Work?

UVC light kills germs that float through the air. The key is that germs need direct exposure and a deadly dose of the UVC rays. This means that the germs have to float through the light and stay there long enough to get the right dose. While we say that this is germ-killing action, it’s actually known as germ inactivation in the science world. There are many studies that show that UVC light inactivates pathogens, including one recent study that shows how effectively it works in indoor environments. 

Germ Inactivation with UVC

The rays from UVC light penetrate germs to inactivate them, making them harmless to humans because they can no longer infect people. This happens in a few different ways. For one, the germs absorb the UVC radiation, which can cause major damage to the DNA and RNA. Another way is that UVC light can damage protective coatings around the germs. For instance, the COVID-19 virus has a protein shell that acts as a protective outer layer for the virus. UVC disinfection can damage this shell so it can’t infect people. This is another way that UVC rays can inactivate germs.

Studies About Indoor Air Disinfection with UVC Light

As a society, we’ve been using UV light disinfection for decades for things like killing germs in public water systems and on surfaces in hospitals. Recently, there’s been a lot of research into UVC disinfection for airborne germs. Upper room germicidal UV light is basically where you use UV lights to kill germs that float up into the upper air of the room or building. This keeps the rays away from human contact, but can kill germs effectively as they float through the air. There have been many studies showing the effectiveness of this type of disinfection, mostly in controlled lab areas. 

A recent study from May of 2022 also found that UV light was effective at killing germs in normal sized rooms and ventilation rates similar to those of an office. The researchers used a room and constantly piped in germ particles of a type of bacteria that is slightly less sensitive to UV light than coronaviruses. The study found that the UV lights in the upper air of the room took just five minutes to reduce the number of harmful airborne germs by 98%. As they continued to put more of the bacteria into the room, the rates still remained low with continuous disinfection from the UV light. 

Why Invest in UVC Disinfection for My Business?

So, why exactly should you get UV disinfection solutions in your building? Now more than ever, people are relying on and expecting businesses to do everything they can to protect them from potentially harmful diseases lurking in their buildings. People shop with stores that disinfect surfaces frequently and take steps to show the public they’re doing what they can to stop the spread of germs, including COVID-19. 

Investing in indoor air disinfection is a great opportunity to show employees and customers that you care about their health and wellbeing. It shows that they’re safe to do business with you. People appreciate when you do everything in your power to prevent germ and disease transmission in your building, and UV lights are an effective solution for fighting airborne germs. 

UV Light Disinfection Solutions from Farlite

Become a Farlite protected building today with our UVPhasor technology. UVPhasors from Farlite offer continuous, autonomous disinfection for the air inside your building. Our devices use UVC light to kill germs as they float through the upper air of your facility. UVPhasors are a unique solution for indoor air disinfection, as they monitor conditions and make automatic adjustments as needed to be more effective. They also provide cloud monitoring options to know exactly when you need maintenance or repairs and automatic safety features to prevent human exposure to UVC light. Get in touch now for a proposal for UVPhasor technology in your building.