Ultraviolet light with a primary wavelength of 254 nanometers (0.01 mil), referred to as UVC, is being used to kill microbes in the air and on the surfaces of coils/drain pans in HVAC systems and on the surfaces of food processing equipment. UVC also is being combined with catalytic surfaces to remove volatile organic compounds from the air. Since many organic compounds present in HVAC systems and processing equipment may be exposed to the UVC light due to poor shielding or design, the potential of material degradation leading to component failure, and possibly, total system malfunction is significant. Standardized methods for exposing, then evaluating, nonmetallic materials have been developed for UVA and UVB but not UVC. Consequently, a research program consisting of a literature search and the UVC exposure of numerous polymers and nonmetallic compounds representative of common materials present in HVAC systems was performed. The following paper describes the results of the literature search performed to identify the photodegradation mechanisms of various polymers exposed to UVC, the photoreactors capable of performing long-term, accelerated UVC exposure tests of multiple samples and the analytical techniques bestsuited for evaluating the photodegradation suffered by the UVC exposed samples.