How to Prevent Premature Burnout in Projector Lamps

If it seems like you are replacing your projector lamps more often than you should, you need to investigate why this is happening. There may be several reasons that your projector lamps are not lasting as long as they should. We will discuss in this article one of the most common reasons for premature burnout of projector lamps.

Voltage surges or sometimes called voltage spikes greatly shorten the life of projector lamps, often by as high as fifty percent. Check your projector lamps for what the manufacturer calls “the rated life” of your projector lamps. If they are not lasting as long as the manufacturer says they should, then you might need to reconsider and use long life projector lamps.

Typically, your home is wired so that when you plug your house hold appliances and your audio visual equipment into a receptacle, they are receiving 120VAC at 60 Hz. Most of us are familiar with this amount of voltage because it is standard in most homes. But did you know that very few power stations, if any, actually produce exactly 120VAC? If weather conditions become volatile or the transmitting wires become damaged and several other conditions affect the voltage being transmitted, then you may find you will not always be getting exactly 120VAC. It is a known fact that in some areas voltage may swing from plus to minus three or four volts. These are referred to as “voltage spikes”.

Projector lamp filaments all have a certain voltage rating. This rating is based on the average voltage they will encounter during their life span. Halogen projector lamps typically operate on an 82 volt power supply. When the voltage amount exceeds the rating given to the filament voltage, the life of the projector lamp is shortened.

The long life projector lamp was created to help reduce the frequency of projector lamp failure because of voltage fluctuations and thus the cost of replacement. We will explain how the long life projector lamps work.

The filaments of long life projector lamps are manufactured to have a rating of 5% higher than standard projector lamps. This makes the filaments better able to handle the “voltage spikes” that standard projector lamps cannot. In most instances, projector lamps that have a lower rating should last longer and need replacement less often.

Unfortunately there is a down side to the long life projector lamps. When the filament rating on projector lamps is changed to a higher rating, it reduces the brightness level (lumens) they produce. In some cases brightness level is reduced as much as thirty percent. For example, if an 82 volt halogen lamp is burning on 86 volts, the brightness level would be 14% higher, but the life expectancy would only be 70% of its rated life. The same long life projector lamp would create a lumen output of 15% or less, but the lamp life would increase more than 25%.

Sometimes the brightness (lumens) required for projection is far more important than prolonging the projector lamp life with the use of long life lamps. You must decide where your priorities lie.

How to Prevent Premature Burnout in Projector Lamps

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