I recently purchased a TNVC L3 OMNI VIII Gen 3 PVS-14. So I've done I bunch of research but I'm having trouble finding answers to these questions.

1) Is it bad to take the lens caps off in lighted rooms if the unit is turned off? Can a turned off pvs14 be exposed to light without damaging it?

2) What should I use to clean the lenses? Is it ok to use a camera lens pen (carbon) or lens cloth? Is it ok to clean a wet lens? Are there any lens cleaning chemicals I should avoid?

Thanks in advance for any help answering these questions.

Congrats on the purchase! See my answers in red

Perfect! Thanks so much for your help.

Get something to use as a sacrificial lens.

1) If the unit is switched off, light will not hurt it, not unless you're shining a powerful laser into it or something. I also wouldn't go pointing it at the sun. But otherwise, if inside, and especially if the battery is removed, then there is no problem removing the lens cap. Just check to make sure it's turned off before removing the cap each time to avoid accidents.

2) If you treat it like a camera lens, you'll be fine. You can get lens wipes if you want to have some with you in the field. You can also get lens papers. Anything designed to clean lenses, as fluids go, should usually be fine, unless it comes with warnings about only being useful for a specific type of lens. Your lens is coated glass.

FYI, you can use a 30mm UV filter meant for cameras on the front as a sacrificial lens. Should be less than $15 and doesn't affect light transmission.

I would certainly not use any rubbing alcohol, as that could remove lense coatings.

where do you find them? every one sell the sacrificial lens for around $35

The factory sacrificial lens is just friction fit on front and the rear is a weak snap in piece for the screw in eye cup retainer. They come with your unit. If you try to snap your rear lens out you will break it once in place. You have to unscrew the rear eyecup retainer to remove it as it is a semi permanant install. Wilcox makes a nice screw in objective cover with replacable lenses for the front. TNVC sells it. You want it so a daylight filter or sacrifical lens is not an either or situation. Unfortunately, the Wilcox has no threads for anything to screw in on the front of itonce it is screwed in. All camera filters with threads on both sides are of the wrong thread pitch or size so they either dont scew in fully or dont let items screw into them that the PVS14 would normally allow. You can put the daylight filter over the Wilcox though. Perhsps they fekt ut was too weak leveraged out there to allow something to screw in front of like a magnifier or the compass would be too far forward offset etc.

You should be able to take the lens cap off in a lighted room with it turned off and exposure to light shouldn't hurt it. That said I wouldn't leave it laying on the counter all day and I wouldn't give it long exposure to direct sunlight. That's been my experience. As far as cleaning, lens cleaning solution should work just fine. I typically use Isopropyl alcohol but I have also used lens cleaning solution with no issue. I've never used a lens pen. When I clean a lens I dust it off first with compressed air, then I use a q tip wetted with alcohol to clean the lens then follow up with dry q tips until there is no residue left. I hope this helps.