“Why is my glow art not bright at night?”

by Esther Stella Murals July 03, 2015

Trouble shooting ~ Daylight/Sunlight and a quick top up at night with a bright light is usually sufficient for a bright glow but here are a few extra tips if you run into trouble:

1 ~ Make sure the room is dark for viewing, moon or street light coming in from the windows can wash out the glow.

2 ~ Basements/darker rooms will need a bright room light to compensate, use a bright room light and get direct light on the mural. Use lights like UV tubes, CFLs, Fluorescent tubes or floor lamps angled at the ceiling. You can also use 2000 - 3000 lumen flashlights. Avoid using incandescent bulbs, they do not charge well. Recessed or 'down' lighting can make some ceilings darker and prevent direct light from charging the stars well.

3 ~ Decals in kids rooms can seem to stop working. If the murals are glowing brightly at first but when you go back in to check on the child a little later and you see nothing glowing, don’t be surprised. Your eyes are no longer adjusted to the darkness and the mural is no longer at full charge. Either stay in the dark room for 20 minutes, or test a few stars out on your own ceiling, you’ll see them glowing again and all through the night on your own ceiling. They fade to a very dim glow right around dawn.

4 ~ Brightness of different room lights vary widely but generally the brighter the room light and more direct the light, the brighter the glow. Charging is more about light quality and less about the length of time you charge it for. The paint is constantly discharging light even during the day, (you’ll see it as a bright yellow or bluey colour). For this reason charging it up all day isn't going to make it brighter at night if the room light is too dim.

Use the brightest fluorescent type room bulbs and get direct light onto your mural to give you a bright glow. You’ll only need 10 minutes of charging with a bright light at most. Daylight alone is often enough.

5 ~ White surfaces reflect the light, charging and glow are both optimised. Dark surfaces absorb light, decals and small stars can be less bright on these surfaces. Many people have dark blue ceilings though and have no problem with getting the murals to glow brightly.

6 ~ Use a bright 2000-3000 lumen torch to super charge the mural fast. This really makes the colours pop and it's definitely worth seeing glow murals with the large nebulous clouds charged this way. Like this one.

Esther Stella Murals

Author

3 Responses

Esther

November 20, 2017

Hi there!

CFL’s are compact fluorescent light bulbs, the twisty looking energy saving ones. I use CFL’s to charge my art the most, here in New Zealand they are easy to buy.
I’ve also used bright LED’s and other bright lights and they have all worked well.

If you have a basement just make sure the area is well lit and not dim, shadowed etc. A floor lamp is an easy fix if you need more light.

Esther :)

HMH

November 15, 2017

My apologies- I misunderstood what the CFL bulb actually is and realize now that it’s the same thing as what we call fluorescent tubes.. I will look for a ‘cold’ unit for charging I guess as there is no natural light in this room..

hMh

November 15, 2017

U keep saying a “bright light” but dont specify what that means exactly….from reading reviews on Amazon I understand that LED does not work that well… can you please explain what CFL is and what type of bulbs work best to charge? Do u recommend a fluorescent bright stick over bedroom lamp light (not incandescent but newer household bulbs ). Should I buy a black light bulb? Many thanks! Your artwork is lovely.

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“Why is my glow art not bright at night?”

Esther Stella Murals

3 Responses

Esther

HMH

hMh

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