Ultraviolet (UV) light, especially UV-C radiation with a wavelength of about 254 nanometers, is widely recognized by the scientific community as an efficient physical disinfection method. Its principle of action is to destroy the DNA or RNA structure of microorganisms, hinder their replication ability, and thereby achieve inactivation. According to the research data cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States, an appropriate dose of UV-C (typically exceeding 30,000 µW·s/cm²) can inactivate more than 99.9% of bacteria (such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) and viruses (including certain coronaviruses) within 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Its effectiveness has been verified in practical applications. For example, during the SARS epidemic in Singapore in 2002, UV-C equipment was deployed in hospital wards for air and surface disinfection, significantly reducing the risk of cross-infection within the hospital. This indicates that UV light technology has a solid scientific foundation and practical basis.
When using UV disinfection equipment in a home environment, technical parameters and safety design are of vital importance. Professional-grade household UV disinfection lamps typically have a power range of 10 to 50 watts and are compaciously designed to fit room sizes (such as 10 to 30 square meters of space). Qualified equipment is equipped with the function of irradiation dose calculation to ensure the attainment of the effective inactivation threshold (such as 40,000 µW·s/cm²). Meanwhile, safety sensors are indispensable, such as the automatic power-off function for human movement detection (response time <0.5 seconds), strictly complying with relevant safety standards of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) (such as IEC 62471), to prevent the skin and eyes from being exposed to excessive UV radiation. In 2021, the FDA issued a consumer alert, reminding users to be aware of the potential ozone generation (exceeding the safety limit of 0.05ppm) and the risk of eye burns from substandard UV lamps.
Brand products such as coospider uv in the market are committed to integrating these professional features into home design. Take a typical coospider uv portable disinfection lamp as an example. It may adopt a 30-watt UV-C lamp tube with a peak wavelength of 254±5nm. The manufacturer released the test report showing that at a distance of 1 meter and under irradiation for 5 minutes, the inactivation rate of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus on hard surfaces reached 99.57%. It even reached 99.91% against Escherichia coli (in accordance with ISO 15714 standard). The device is equipped with dual safeguards: a 180° wide-angle motion detector and a 30-second delay start-up, significantly reducing the risk of misoperation and meeting the safety requirements for household appliances in EN 60335-1. Such data indicate that strictly designed and compliant household UV lamp products can have excellent disinfection performance.
However, UV light disinfection also has significant limitations in household applications. The light-blocking effect is the most core challenge – microorganisms must be directly exposed to effective irradiation to be inactivated. Research data (such as the 2019 study in the American Journal of Infection Control) indicate that UV-C works best on smooth and hard surfaces, but in crevices, wrinkles or shadow areas (such as under furniture, fabric wrinkles), the reduction rate of colony-forming units (CFU) may drop sharply to less than 70%. In addition, UV lamp tubes exhibit aging and attenuation. The lifespan of mainstream mercury lamp tubes ranges from 8,000 to 10,000 hours. The decline in irradiance intensity in the later stage may affect their performance (with an average annual intensity attenuation of approximately 15% to 20%). Users need to replace them regularly as recommended by the manufacturer. Therefore, for household use, it should be regarded as a supplementary measure. It should be used after regular cleaning (such as wiping surfaces with chlorine-containing disinfectants), and short-term exposure (about 1-3 minutes each time) should be carried out on key areas (such as mobile phones, remote controls or countertops). Safety regulations must be strictly followed, such as personnel and pets must leave the exposure space, and ozone-releasing devices should not be used for a long time in a closed small space, etc. Only in this way can its efficiency be maximized and an additional microbial barrier be provided for the home environment.