Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

I recently started to display my stuff in detolfs but wanted to get your thoughts in regards to sunlight. A couple of the displays, do get a few hours of sun on them each day, windows are around 10-20 feet away.

Now I do have window film installed on the windows which has 99% UV Light Blocked, 44% Light Transmittance, and 15% visible light reflectance. I don't know if it makes a difference that these are professionally installed vs the dyi stuff from home depot but I do notice the difference in light and heat in the rooms after they were installed.

So my question is should my stuff be fine being in a bit of sun each day? I really don't want to move the detolfs, I suppose another option is add a layer of window film on the detolf itself itself but that seems a bit overkill.

what do you guys think?

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

The UV light is the most damaging to plastics. So if you've got a 99% UV filter already on the windows, you should be fine.

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

Also consider the UV that can be emitted by your light fixtures inside the home!

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

Board up the windows! :primelaugh: Seriously though I blocked out the window in my collection room. Now no UV from sulight.

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

This is what I'm gonna do, probably in the basement
Though wary of putting TF collection in the lowest level (re: flooding)

Not that its happened before or anything, but I've seen some nightmares online, and who wants to take the chance?

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

Just by way of preface, I work in culture and heritage and work with museum collections. One of the things I have to do is make sure museum artifacts remain undamaged for decades. There are a lot of potential threats, but one of the big ones is light.

There are actually two measurements for light that we use in the museum world. One is UV and the other is lux.

UV is quite obviously the measurement of ultra violet radiation, which as you've got UV film on your windows you are obviously familiar with.

lux is the measurement of light levels, literally how bright the light is. There are some museum artifacts (watercolour paintings for example) where the museum standard is, no more than 50 lux brightness exposure for a period of no longer than six months. This is independent of whatever the UV levels are. Lux will primarily cause fading of colours, especially bright colours, especially reds, but ultimately all colours will be affected. Unfortunately direct sunlight is usually measured in the hundreds of lux.

An even simpler way to look at it is, damage to a toy (except obviously dropping it) is caused by a chemical reaction which causes changes in the plastic over time. Chemical reactions require energy, and sunlight contains a lot of energy.

In short if you had museum artifacts in those Detolfs, I would tell you to move them out of the light. Plastic toys are pretty durable but not immune to damage, I honestly wouldn't help it along.

One last thing, UV film is great but it does break down over time. Often you can't tell without measuring the UV levels. In two or three years time those toys in the display cases will be receiving higher UV than you think, despite the film on the windows.

If you can, also light the room with LEDs. They emit very low levels of UV.

Hope this helps, and sorry to be a downer.

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

Definitely great info to have. Thanks!

Re: Detolf Displays Sunlight
 

My TF?s are on 8 4X8 3 foot high tables around the perimeter of the room and shelves mounted on the walls above those tables. Boxes in totes under tables that I covered with table cloths to hide the totes. I have one detolf with MP?s on top working down to less expensive figures on the bottom.