Since full-spectrum bulbs reproduce sunlight, including infrared and ultraviolet light, could I outfit my house such that escaping a nightime vampire attack is as easy as flicking on a light switch? My main concern is that the strength of the light, being so much less than the sun, might not be sufficient to drive away bloodsuckers.
No vampire will ever enter your house when you use those kinds of lightbulbs.
:::checks mod manual for “vampire questions” :::
I think this one is better suited to MPSIMS.
Moved from General Questions. samclem
Remember, the whole thing about vampires crumpling to dust in daylight is pure Hollywood fiction! Vampires lose their supernatural powers in daylight, and many probably dislike it due to heightened senses, sensistive skin or being acclimatised to darkness, but any vampire that you expose to ultraviolet will probably still be as dangerous as an ordinary serial killer- and even more willing to rip your throat out.
In any case, I would guess that there is something in the power of the sun, long-associated with goodness, rebirth and holiness (to the extent of being a god in many pantheons) rather than merely ultraviolet light, that spooks the undead. Best stick to garlic and fennel seeds, plus as many crosses as you can bear to have around the house.
I’d say it depends. If you’ve got one of those new-fangled science fictiony vampires, where vampirism is caused by a virus or whatnot, then there’s something in the physical properties of sunlight that will kill it. So an artificial sunray would do fine.
If you’ve got one of those old school vampires, where vampirism is based on dark magic and demons, then it’s the symbolism of the Sun, the fact that the Sun represents good against evil, then artificial lights wouldn’t work. A crucifix would work fine here, but would fail against the former vamp.
According to Yamara, there is at least one vampire who is adversely affected not by sunlight, but by doing her own laundry.
Good point- I hadn’t considered the many different varieties of vampire in existance.
Do you think if we bribed Anne Rice her next vampire book would have vampires who loved to do the laundry and secretly left chocolate mints on your pillow?
But would a lightbulb be enough to drive the vampire away, or would it just cause minor skin irritation? I suspect the latter.
I think you’re right. Natural sunlight usually burns a vampire pretty good until he gets out of it. Only the dumbest, slowest, or most suicidal vampires ever seem to stay in the sun long enough to actually burn up. A straight-up sunlamp would probably cause some good burns, but a full-spectrum light would probably give a vamp nothing more than a light sunburn.
It was a good idea, though. 
HA!
I knew it!
I knew there was a secret mod manual!
Now, the question remains, is it on line some where, or a dusty tome kept buried in an unconsecrated graveyard when not in use?
I think Blade and his buddies were using some sort of UV ray gun against the super vamps in Blade II.
Even the sun isn’t a surefire method against demon based vamps (at least in Anne Rice lore). Lestat spent at least a full day out in the sun and didn’t die. He wasn’t thrilled, he was trying to kill himself. Of course he was several centuries old had drank the blood of the first vampire…I’ll stop now before I admit knowing too much anne rice…
But a full-spectrum light bulb isn’t a very good approximation of real sunlight. It’s better than a regular lightbulb, but the spectrum isn’t that close. And the brightness and apparent size of the light source are way off.
“Solar simulators” are used for testing satellite instruments, especially attitude sensors that use the sun as a reference. The one I used before was the size of a suitcase, had a brightness of 0.6-solar (60% of the brightness of full sun), and source size was very close to the real sun. But the spectrum fell short of real sun in the infrared and UV. I think it cost as much as a new luxury car.
Worth every penny when the difference is between killing the vampire and pissing him off.
Yup, I’d agree that it depends on the variety of vampire. I would also caution against excessive reliance on crosses or other religous symbols. In some traditions, such devices are ineffective unless the wielder thereof has actual faith in the religion and its symbol.
My personal favorite anti-vampire security device would be a good shotgun–loaded with rounds carrying wood pellets instead of regular shot. Failing that, I’d have to kick its ass manually, which does get tiresome.
It’s online. You have to perform certain unholy rituals to read it - otherwise, it appears to be pure gibberish. But as long as you have a few ounces of virgin’s blood and a spare chicken on hand, you shouldn’t have any trouble.
Can I substitute virgin olive oil? MUCH easier to come by.
In A Logical Magician the hero successfully used sun lamps against a magic-based vampire; fried him to ash. He also used a jacuzzi as an anti-vampire shield; it’s running water.
And yes, they did use an UV light in Blade.
Reload with wooden pellets, silver coins, some guitar strings and you can take out vampires, werewolfs, and the Elder gods.
Guitar strings?
I’d prefer fennel seed against vampires. In some folktales, vampires with fennel seed scattered on their graves must count every grain before departing to feast on the blood of the living. Applied with a shotgun, said fennel ought to be fairly hard to “count”.