Patent ID: 7615160

Claim:
A water disinfection apparatus comprising a channel for defining a flow of water; plural ultraviolet light sources, each ultraviolet light source comprising: one or more elongate lamp units comprising at least one ultraviolet bulb and defining an elongate lamp unit axis, the lamp units perpendicular to the flow of water, the lamp units disposed vertically between an upper support plate and a lower support plate, wherein in use at least part of the elongate lamp unit encounters the flow of water; a quartz sleeve arranged to enclose the at least one ultraviolet bulb; and one or more microwave units comprising a microwave energy source for exciting the at least one ultraviolet bulb, wherein the one or more microwave units positioned on an upper surface of the upper support plate; and a cooling system for the lamp units, the cooling system comprising: a fan positioned above the upper support plate; an upper air box commonly shared among the one or more lamp units, the upper air box adapted to receive a feed of cooling air from the fan; a cylindrical air pipe for downwardly transporting the cold air feed from the common upper air box; and one or more lower air boxes adapted for receiving the cold air feed from the cylindrical air pipe, the one or more lower air boxes sealably coupled to the quartz sleeve enclosing the ultraviolet bulbs, each lower air box further adapted for upwardly transporting the cold air feed through the quartz sleeve enclosing the ultraviolet bulbs; wherein the upper support plate comprises the common upper air box and the lower support plate comprises at least one lower air box for each lamp unit.