Melbourne-based lighting design company, Brightgreen, has engineered ultraviolet lights to combat the transmission of COVID-19.
The lights are ready for production in Melbourne, according to the company’s CEO, David O’Driscoll.
“Many buildings will need to stay occupied during this pandemic,” O’Driscoll said.
“Automated UV-C lighting is the safest and most compliant option to eliminate viruses in these spaces.”
Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) has been an accepted disinfection practice since the mid-20th century. It’s also been used in China to disinfect trains and buses of COVID-19 since earlier this year.
Brightgreen’s head of engineering, Nathan Moffat, said UV-C is well established in medical practice as a way to eradicate viruses. “The challenge is to keep it safe and economical,” he said.
While studies show that UV-C lights kill, or inactivate, viruses, the lights can also cause eye and skin damage.
Brightgreen states that they’ve mitigated this risk by linking the lights to their wellness system, which uses presence monitors to determine if anyone is in the room.
“You could be running laps or passed out cold, the system will recognize your presence and stop the UV-C lights from turning on,” Moffat said.
The system is set up to be fully automated to run overnight. The lights themselves are dual spectrum, so they can switch between regular visual lighting and UV-C. Brightgreen said they designed the lights to be easy to install for a fast, scalable solution.
“We made the designs for this system open source,” O’Driscoll said, “so other manufacturers can tool up to increase the speed to market with this high-impact system.”