Ozone vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) ozone generators, employ a light source that generates a narrow-band ultraviolet light, a subset of that produced by the Sun. The Sun's UV sustains the ozone layer in the stratosphere of Earth. UV ozone generators use ambient air for ozone production, no air prep systems are used (air dryer or oxygen concentrator), therefore these generators tend to be less expensive. However UV ozone generators usually produce ozone with a concentration of about 0.5% or lower which limits the potential ozone production rate. Another disadvantage of this method is that it requires the ambient air (oxygen) to be exposed
Radiation by ozone (O) in particular. Ionizing UV therefore does not penetrate Earth's atmosphere to a significant degree, and is sometimes referred to as vacuum ultraviolet. Although present in space, this part of the UV spectrum is not of biological importance, because it does not reach living organisms on Earth. There is a zone of the atmosphere in which ozone absorbs some 98% of non-ionizing but dangerous UV-C and UV-B. This so-called ozone layer starts at about and extends upward. Some of the ultraviolet spectrum that does reach the ground (the part that begins above energies of 3.1 eV, a wavelength