Display: Safe lighting for vintage toys

[Morbius]

As many of us have turned to compact flourescent lighting over the last few years to replace incandescent lighting, I am curious as to the safety of the new LED lights on vintage paint/litho/collections in general, is there anything known about fading and/or damage to items under LED lighting systems? What kind of lightbulbs would be safest around our vintage collections?

What about CF's in ceiling fixtures or terreriums and aquariums around model/toy collections?

[Roboto]

I have started using the incandescent once more. I tried the newer CFL and the light was not as it once was in the display area. So I have stocked up on the ones I need for the display area and should be fine for a while. I also have wondered as what would happen if the CFL bulb broke inside the cabinet and the inner dust was all over the area. The warnings are there as not to breathe the air in the fallen area open windows not to vacuum the dust up so now we may have a toxic cool looking robot that needs to be dusted up very carefully. They save Energy but many contain Mercury inside of them. :)

[Joe K.]

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I seem to remember Henk posting his thoughts on this topic many years ago. If I remember correctly, he said the leds were the safest, but at that time, they were still very expensive and not widely available.

I'll try and find that thread.

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[Morbius]

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I seem to remember Henk posting his thoughts on this topic many years ago. If I remember correctly, he said the leds were the safest, but at that time, they were still very expensive and not widely available.

I'll try and find that thread.

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Thanks Joe, you're our robot 'wikipedia'!! :lol:

[robothut]

I have posted many times about how bad florescent tube lighting is unless you put the UV blocker filter over the tubes. Well the new CFL are just spiral florescent lights, they will do more damage to plastic toys and the the box art than anything you can think of. The new white LED lights are safe , they do not put out any UV light too speek of as they have tailored the light out out to the visible range to get the most useable light for the money. And the money is the problem, the darn lights are still to expencive. I played around with most of the LED lights out there. My bathroom is filled with 4 different types of LED lights. Basicly all the LED lights out there that are made up of alot of individual LEDs are OLD SCHOOL and crap, the good LED lights are the new ones that use 1 too 3 high wattage LEDs per bulb. If you decide to by a LED bulb check the Lumins out put. You need a bulb with at least 800 lums if you want it to look as bright as a normal 60 watt filiment lamp. Any way the price is coming down and in a few years they will be cheep enough that I will replace all the lighting in the hut with them, till then do as I do. use UV filters on your florescent lighting tubes and CFLs, keep the lighting as far away from the toys as possible and keep the lights OFF as much as possible. Even quarts halogen lights put out UV rays "and alot of heat" most the small halogen type lamps for cabnet lighting have a UV glass blocking filter on the front of them. When I lit my case I used normal low voltage filiment lights that are normaly sold as yard lights, they were very low cost at the time and the UV output is very low. Just remember just because a light is a LED type does not mean it is safe, there are UV LEDs and Black Light LEDs and infrared LEDs, but the ones made to output the White spectrum are very low in harmful emissions.

[Morbius]

Thank you John for the great lesson in lights, I'll be sure and check out the safer ones as you described for the ceiling fixture, it's the 'lumens' thing that gets confusing to us mortals.

In the large store cabinet we have, I only use the old flourescent light for a few moments at a time when someone (or myself) wants to view the 'bots in there.

The room where *Altaira keeps her hermit crabs is also the 'Horse Room' with her one-of-a-kind model builds that she and others have done, has a standard 2-lamp light fixture which I'll try to find those safe ones you describe. The crab's environment just had a new canopy added with bright squiggly bulbs which we don't light often, her thought was to velcro a fabric shield over the front so as to block those rays from illuminating on the hand-painted fillies and stallions.

I really get a kick out of Home Depot in the light-bulb section now with especially the seniors scratching their heads trying to figure out which damn bulb they need from the 200 foot aisle of 'em.

Thanks for your response John it's much appreciated, I figured you'd have lots of knowledge to share on this. ;) We've all seen what sunlight in a store window does to a toy which inhabites the space for a few years. :o

[Morbius]

John, where would someone buy UV filters? Is there a UV sheet or something we could put over the glass sides of the terrarium that we could see through clearly and would filter the UV's?

[robothut]

Here is web site that sells the UV filters for normal fluorscent tube and large sheets for cieling lights that could be used for other htings. Normaly UV filters are clear plastic in apperance.This web site may not be the cheepest but it does show whats out there. you can use the info to do a price search for thwe lowest cost. The price is only about $7 bucks per 4 foot tube if you are buying aslot of them like I did in the hut 11 years ago, but if you want only 1 then its alot more, so a internet search for the best prices would be the thing to do.

http://www.ergomart.com/FLUORESCENT_LIGHT_FILTERS/filters.htm

[robothut]

Here is another web site with tube filters.

http://www.gaylord.com/adblock.asp?abid=2424

[dratomic]

Someone on the Star Wars boards did a pretty in-depth study of different lighting solutions for collections, taking into account brightness, UV output, and cost. I'll try to find the link and post it here.

The gist of it, however, was that LEDs are your safest option, though they cost a lot if you're trying to get good output.

Both CFLs and Halogens had high UV output... And halogens are HOT. I've seen them melt office equipment when placed too close.

Incandescents had decent UV output and obviously don't cost much. But in my opinion, the light looks terrible -- they cast a slightly warm hue over all my toys. Lame!

I still think that LEDs are your best bet. They're cool to the touch, they produce a nice color temperature (i.e., they're white, not sickly yellow), and they're extremely energy efficient. They last forever, which means even though they cost a lot initially, you don't have to think about changing them. So yeah, you pay more up front... but in the end, you're ultimately saving money.

I'm currently using the newest version of Ikea's LED strip lights. I think they're the DIODE model. They're about a foot long, but very low profile. They're easy to instal in cases, and come four to a pack. They attach to a wall wart via really long cords, so they're easy to position within my display cases.

They're still not as bright as other lights... but they're bright enough for me.

Good luck!

[Kilroy]

I have been gravitating to Led's the last year or so as they are now starting to put out some decent light. I have mostly been getting MR16 bulbs that fit my track lighting using 5 or more watts off ebay shipped from Asia. A little expensive compared to dirt cheap halogen mr16's but it seems that a couple of times a year they either get cheaper or more powerful. At this wattage they do throw some heat. I have been favoring the warmer white - unlike Doc, I don't much care for the starker white but since John pointed out they could be producing some UV, maybe I should rethink that.

[Morbius]

Thank everyone for your input on this, every answer is terrific. John after I read your very indepth post with all those specs...printed that up and went to Home Depot and bought a couple of 60 watt equivallent @$30 each (on sale)for the ceiling fixture (bare bulb '50's type with the glass dish over it) in the Horse Model room. As Dr. A. mentioned the colour given off is white but has a warmth without the yellow cast of an incandescent fixture. The bulbs look weird with 4 orange bands converging but they screw in like regular bulbs. The detail on items in the room is beautiful with these lights on.

We can relax more now that we're not sucking the life of the collectables with flourscent tubes, I'm not replacing the CP's in the dining fixture at $300 for a set...rather buy a 'bot.

Thanks all for the contributions, anyone with more info please post it's all good!!

Thanks John for the sites, much appreciated.

[robothut]

For those that have not played with any of the new LED lights, they do come in all white type colors , meaning some are pure white , some are a blue white and some are the yellow white that old type filiment bulbs produce. they get the different color ratings by putting a collored filter cover over the lamp and by adjusting the LED diode construction. So many of the screw in typ bulbs will look very strange when OFF but look very normal "what ever that is" when ON. I have one in my bathroom that looks like a normal old school screw base lamp and produces a very nice white light. and with 800 lumems of light output it is every bit as bright as a old school light bulb. It draws less power than the CFL lamps and produces very little heat. They even sell all LED lights that are build to replace 4 foot florescent tubes, but these are super dupper expencive, its much cheeper to just add the UV blocking filter to the florescent tubes that block 99% of all UV light.