Tanning bed bulbs are used for a variety of tanning beds.  In choosing the right tanning bed bulb for your home tanning bed, you will need to consider a number of things.  First off would be your personal tanning needs.  This may have been taken into consideration when you bought your tanning bed, but there are options to choose the right type of bulbs that would best fit your specifications.  You would also need to ensure safety when purchasing the right tanning bulbs.  In this regard, you need to make sure that you buy the bulbs from trusted and known supplier.  You would also need to ensure that you are buying the right kind of bulb for your tanning bed.  There are bulbs that are specific to a particular style or brand of tanning bed, and buying the wrong kind of tanning bulbs may cause damage to your bed, which you definitely want to avoid.

Tanning bed bulbs are designed to imitate the sun.  However, only two rays are used instead of the three (UVA, UVC and UVB).  UVC is the most harmful of these three rays, and this is removed from the rays of the tanning bulbs.  The UVA and UVB rays are then left, and would help you get that fabulous tan that you are aiming for. 

There are also colored tanning bed bulbs, but these colors are for cosmetic purposes only.  The color will not matter in terms of the tanning process that you are after, and specially colored bulbs would help give you a tan faster.  The colored tanning bulbs are used to set a particular ambiance or theme but other than that, their purpose is the same as regularly hued bulbs.

The type of tanning bed bulb that best fits your needs would also depend on the length of time you want use to achieve that tan.  For quicker tanning, a bulb with higher UVB rating would be best.  The tanning process will be quicker, although you may not come away with a rich, golden tan color.  If you would like to achieve a deeper tan and are not concerned with how much time it may take, then you would need to go for a bulb with higher UVA rating.  For this, it would be best to consult with a professional who can recommend tanning bed bulbs with the ideal UV rating for your needs.

Unlike regular bulbs, you should not wait for the bulb brightness to fade or to completely go out before you change them.  Tanning bulbs lose significant amounts of UV rays after 1000 hours of usage.  When this happens, the bulbs will not be as useful for you to achieve the tan that you want.  They would function as regular bulbs and even if you lie in the tanning bed for a longer time, they may in fact be useless as the tanning purpose of the bulbs will be diminished.  Regular maintenance on your home tanning bed can help you to know when your bulbs need to be replaced.

As always, when looking to purchase replacement tanning bed bulbs, you would always need to consider your safety first.  It would be best to consult a tanning salon consultant or specialist to be assured of what would suit your needs with the most quality and best cost.  You can also go online and research what will work best for you.  Ultimately, it would be a good idea to purchase your tanning bulbs from the same supplier where you purchased your home tanning bed, in order to achieve the best results.