Black light is ultraviolet light or a lamp that emits most of the light in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Other names for black light are UV-A light or ultraviolet light. And it is beyond the range of our vision.
Black light parties are quickly getting in traction, and they are an awesome idea for a lot of events, whether it is for your birthday or your other celebration. Blacklight parties resonate with your children as young as three, all the way up to adults.
Black lights produce a deep blue color and have a few varieties including mercury vapor, fluorescent, and LED. So you may have a question, can Philips Hue emit black light?
No, Philips Hue bulbs can’t emit black light. Black light is ultraviolet. Hue is not. If you would like to make your bulbs get as close as to real black light, You could try to cover the light fitting with layers of purple and blue cellophane or buy an ultraviolet bulb for that. You also can replace the existing LEDs with LEDs of the wavelength you need. It’s very simple in my mind.
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What is Philips Hue?
Philips Hue is a line of smart LED light bulbs and fixtures. From surprisingly affordable white-light LED bulbs to multicolor and fancy fixtures, it’s a robust smart lighting system.
The Hue bridge is the brain of the Hue smart lighting system, allowing you to control up to 50 Hue devices. Simply plug it in and connect it into the Hue app, so you can set custom light scenes, timers, routines, and more. The bridge uses ZigBee to talk to your lights but it connects to your network through an Ethernet cable.
If your want to know if your Philips Hue can emit black light, you should know how Philips Hue bulbs work.
The Three Types of Philips Hue Lights
Philips Hue lights are iconic and are well known as some of the best smart light bulbs on Amazon.
They have three main kinds of Hue smart lights.
- Hue White
- Hue White Ambiance
- Hue White And Color Ambiance
Philips Hue Smart bulbs can be turned on and off with various smart switches, with a voice command, a mobile app, or even with a synch schedule. Not just that, you also can dim your smart bulbs and change their tones/colors. However, none of Philips Hue’s smart lights can emit black light.
Hue White
The Hue White lights just emit all shades of white light, you also can conveniently dim to meet your preference by the Philips Hue dimmer or Philips Hue app.
Because the Hue White lights only come with the ability to change their brightness options, so you can’t do anything when it comes to color changing or temperature adjustment.
However, you can dim your Hue White lights to create a relaxed ambiance at night and set them to the brightest in the morning for a dynamic day.
Hue White Ambiance
The Hue White Ambiance lights provide a bigger range of color temperatures. Those bulbs can provide up to 50,000 shades of natural white light – from energizing, bright daylight to warm orange.
The Hue White Ambiance bulbs are meant for settings like dining rooms, bedrooms, or anywhere else you need to add a bit of atmosphere. When setting it to a warmer temperature, the bulbs will emit a warmer, more soothing light. When dialing it to a cooler temperature, the bulbs will radiate a bright, blueish light, which is great for working.
You will love the adjustable ambiance, You also can connect them to an Amazon echo dot, which makes your space techier and kinda fun.
Hue White And Color Ambiance
If you have done a little research for Hue White And Color Ambiance, you may think it is kinda gimmicky for these color-changing bulbs. If you give them a try, I think you will be addicted to them.
These lights provide a great 16-million color options. Aside from being enjoyable to choose from a bunch of preset color “themes”, you also can change their colors manually. Furthermore, you also can create your own themes and save them as preset.
Although expensive, These bulbs can be dialed into any need. They are awesome for setting up different scenes for reading, moving night, homework, and with smart home integration, you can do so much more.
Fortunately, you can use them to mimic black light effect while they have no real black light utility.
How do The LED Lights Work?
Smart bulbs use less energy and last a lot longer. They use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and various technologies to work.
The diodes include:
- Blue diodes.
- Red diodes.
- Green diodes.
- Cool and warm white diodes.
You don’t need to mix a different of colors to generate ‘white’ color, instead, you can generate quality ‘white’ colors via Cool and warm white diodes.
RGBW LEDs come in every color imaginable, thanks to the cool and white diodes, they can also illuminate your rooms evenly with pure white light. Except for black light.
Can Philips Hue Do Black Light?
The term black light refers to a specific kind of light – usually fluorescent. With a unique luminous covering that creates UV radiation in the UVA range.
Your eyes aren’t truly that in-tune for UA-A, because black light operates at a totally different wavelength than visible light and also can make certain items fluorescent while a Black light is held over them.
No, You can’t create a black light with Philips Hue lights, but I am sure you want to know how to get a smart black light.
How Does Black Light Work?
When everything else is dark, a black light makes certain items glow in the dark. It is since certain items are fluorescent under UV light, which is what black light products.
Because UV light or ultraviolet is infamously associated with skin cancer and other health problems. You also should know there are three types of UV light: UVC, UVB, and UVA. UVA, which is closest to the visible light spectrum, is primarily the type of UV light emitted by a black light, and it is the safest one.
Black Lights vs Blacklight Blue Bulbs
Two types of black lights are:
- General black lights
- The technical black light blue lights
When we mention black lights, most of us are really referring to a “blacklight blue” blub. There are some differences between these and true black light. Ok, let’s explore them.
Blacklight blue bulbs
Blacklight blue bulbs have an almost black and dark blue coating. They use a nickel-oxide coated glass, known as a “Wood’s Glass”, which can block all of the non-UV-A lights – allowing a faint violet glow to escape.
Blacklight bulbs
When you turn your Blacklight bulbs on, and they will glow electric blue via UV transmissive glass. Contrary to their name, blacklight bulbs actually have a bluer light than blacklight blue bulbs.
If You want to create a weaker black light effect, you can cover your flashlight with some blue and purple cellophane wrap.
Black lights are very useful in amusement parks, bowling alleys, clubs, Halloween displays, and other fun events.
You have known some knowledge about black light, but you will surely want to know if you can create a black light with your Philips Hue light.
Types of Black Light
There are a few black light bulb types. They including:
- LED Black Lights
- Mercury vapor lamps
- Incandescent lamps
- Compact Fluorescent Light
- Fluorescent Black Light
How to Make Black Light With Philips Hue LED lights?
With Philips Hue lights, you can be close to black light, but you can’t get true black light at all.
The CIE color model is a mapping system that uses tristimulus, which is a combination of three color values that are close to red/green/blue. While these values are combined, they can reproduce any color that your eye can perceive.
Hue light also uses a CIE color model and there is a very intuitive way within the Philips Hue app for you to choose colors.
If you want to set your light to electric blue or shades of deep violet, you will need a full-color Ambiance bulb or LED strip and make all of them work together. Your black light will differ somewhat from light to light.
All three smart-speaker platforms including Google Assistant, Alexa, and to a lesser degree, Siri can control various smart-home devices and add an extra level of convenience to your smart-home system. You also can set your light to “electric purple” through the “Lavender” setting within Google Home, Alexa, and Siri.
In this way, you can get the same result as black light but not as same as cool, UV-A fluorescent effect. How much effect depends on how sensitive the UV-A reactive décor you use. It is enough to create a mild fluoresce if you have done it all properly.
An Easy Way to Make a Black Light for Philips Hue Smart Lights?
Black light technology is a cinch for LED. You can find some LED black light on the market, but you can’t find UV-A black light from smart lights. However with some workarounds for a black light.
Designed to transform your traditional lamps into smart lights, the Philips Hue Smart Plug works the Philips Hue bridge or through Bluetooth. You also can use A Philips Hue Smart Plug to make your regular black light smarter.
With the Philips Hue Smart Plug, you can use the Philips Hue app to activate any black lights. Smart Plugs undoubtedly bring more convenience to your home and, in conjunction with the modern lighting system, also can bring a variety of lighting effects.