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Author Topic: Should I be recycling my bulbs? Dan Chilton Expert Film Handler Posts: 191 From: Springfield, MO Registered: Mar 2004 posted 03-11-2006 09:51 PM                        I've been on the same 1600 watt Xenon since mid-September 2005. Tonight I noticed just the slightest, slightest pulsation in brightness. It only lasted for a minute or two (in fact, it was during an old trailer), but it made me think... should I be rotating my bulbs, or should I just run the current one until it goes dark? What do you guys think?  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-11-2006 10:36 PM                     How many hours are on the bulb? How is your lamphouse ventilation? How many hours do you usually get out of a bulb? Does your automation strike and kill the bulb with every show? The date on which you changed the bulb doesn't mean whole lot. It's much more important how much use it has gotten. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Dan Chilton Expert Film Handler Posts: 191 From: Springfield, MO Registered: Mar 2004 posted 03-11-2006 11:31 PM                        First off, the title of this post should've been "Should I be rotating my bulbs?" not "recycling." Secondly, to answer jhawk's questions: Hours on the bulb = ~600 Ventilation = very good (500 cfm), always on This is our first bulb (we opened in September), so I don't know how long we usually get... yet. My automation typically switches the bulb off if there's less than 30 minutes between shows, otherwise it stays on.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Tiffany Film Handler Posts: 16 From: Sanford, Florida, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 03-12-2006 12:15 AM                     600 is way low hours for a 1600W. We get 2000-4000 hours on our 2kW(Osram XBO 2000W H OFR). Our tech rotates our lamps if we get a dark spot on a side, to even it out, but apparantly Osram says you don't need to(and we get decent hours even without rotating).  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-12-2006 12:24 AM                        quote: Dan Chilton My automation typically switches the bulb off if there's less than 30 minutes between shows, otherwise it stays on. I'm guessing you mean "more than 30 minutes between shows." (I hope so, anyway...seems like an awful waste of electricity and bulb-life to run it MORE than 30 minutes between shows.)  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-12-2006 12:29 AM                     Excuse me? What kind of automation knows if the intermission is going to be more than 30 minutes???  |  IP: Logged Ron Curran Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 504 From: Springwood NSW Australia Registered: Feb 2006 posted 03-12-2006 12:35 AM                        We were told that striking a 2K bulb used as much power as 20 minutes of normal running and that it was equivalent in bulb life to one hour of normal running. If this is a myth I am sure it will be busted before I have finished this sentence. The techs told us that the twin bulbs in our video projector should be left on for 40 minutes after being turned on. There seems to be quite a number of posts talking about 1600 and 2000 xenons. This indicates that there are still quite a few screens out there less than 80 foot wide.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-12-2006 01:46 AM                     Forget 80 foot wide screens. You can't even adequately light a screen HALF that wide with a 2K bulb. (Unless your standards are really low, I suppose.) There is some argument about the whole "strike the lamp and lose an hour". Obviously it does kill the life a little bit, but personally I don't quite buy an entire HOUR of life.  |  IP: Logged Richard Hamilton Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1341 From: Evansville, Indiana Registered: Jan 2000 posted 03-12-2006 03:02 AM                     quote: Dan Chilton My automation typically switches the bulb off if there's less than 30 minutes between shows, otherwise it stays on. ha, must be quite an automation!  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-12-2006 07:43 AM                        I worked at two sites which ran 1.6k lamps (Osrams). The company policy was to rotate a quarter-turn every 500 hours, and we'd usually get 2,000-2,500 hours out of each one - heading towards 3,000 for a good one. There was no set policy on downtime between shows. I would tend to turn the lamp off if this was more than around 30 minutes. I'd always keep both lamps running throughout a changeover show.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 03-12-2006 09:10 AM                        Long ago I serviced a 2 machine drive in with 20 minute reels and Christie CXL-30. I recall good life 2000+ hours anyway. Bulb was ignited for each reel. Louis  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 03-12-2006 01:16 PM                        quote: Louis Bornwasser Long ago I serviced a 2 machine drive in with 20 minute reels and Christie CXL-30. I recall good life 2000+ hours anyway. Sure. I used to get 3,500+ hours out of 4kW Perkin-Elmers... but that ended a long time ago. I was told it had something to do with the anode and thoriated tungsten (?) that they commonly used back then something like that... I don't remember exactly now. The bulbs they turn out these days sure don't perform like they used to... at least the higher wattage ones.  |  IP: Logged Dan Chilton Expert Film Handler Posts: 191 From: Springfield, MO Registered: Mar 2004 posted 03-12-2006 01:50 PM                        My automation is amazing.... it consists of myself and a timer. We run a single reel-to-reel projector, so I'm the one responsible for manually striking the bulb / shutting the dowser / drawing down the house lights / fading the music / etc.. It's the only automation I trust 100%... well, 98%.  |  IP: Logged Marin Zorica Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 671 From: Biograd na Moru, Croatia Registered: May 2003 posted 03-12-2006 01:53 PM                     Also in bulb duration very important things are bulb DC Voltage (V) and Current (A) because if these values are over than in manual bulb life is shorter than average, I saw some 1,6KW running 85-90A, that definitely gonna short life, electrodes will be burned!  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-12-2006 02:05 PM                     quote: Jack Ondracek The bulbs they turn out these days sure don't perform like they used to... at least the higher wattage ones. Now thats a line of crap! There is at least one very consistant and super reliable lamp left and thats Christie/Ushio. I would rate Superior Quartz a close second. Everyone else is inconsistant as hell and far behind including the beloved OSRAM. The Redwood Drive Inn here in West Valley typially runs their Christie 4kw lamps well past 3500 hours, some close to 4,000 hrs. The Redwood does not shut off their lamps for the entire time they are open, typically dusk to dawn. Other customers that let em burn between shows also experience longer lamp life. We also have customers (much to my distress) that get 10,000 plus hours out of 2kw Christie lamps, some have exceeded 14,000 hours and they are still nice and clear when pulled... just unstable. I had one location in ELKO, NV that I mentioned a couple of years back on this forum that ran their original 2kw Christie lamp for close to 8 years. I've had 3 kw lamps go past 5,000 hrs on many occasions. None of these lamps has ever exploded and to answer your "should I rotate question" none of these lamps ever received any rotation durung their ultra long life span. A tip... If you can suck the Sunday Paper up the stack then you have enough cooling ! BTW: The Redwood just installed Teqnalight reflectors so there goes their great lamp life ! Most lamphouse manufacturers specs for exhaust blowers are but more than a joke and they fail to make mention of high altitude cooling. Bulb life is all in the Exhaust blower..... rectifier a close second. Hurricane type blowers do pay off and those at lower, near sea level elevations should have no difficulties cooling lamps. Higher altitudes such as I deal with are a bit more difficult to cool and require even larger than normal blowers. Just going from 5,000 feet to 7,0000 feet the air becomes alot thinner and things start to get a bit hairy spec'ing the correct blower. Even the time of year can dictate how the air behaves at these altitudes I have also found that is is virtually impossible to over cool a lsmp. Anyone that thinks you can is full of it... just try to over cool those operating white hot tungsten electrodes or 600 degree quartz envelope! I can only hope that SMPTE was smart enough to include "High Altitude" specs in the D-Cinema standards for these expensive projectors since there can be alot to loose if everything is made automatic in that regard and not taken into account for. Problems relating to lamp life in Digital Projectors have already been a problem at Sundance over the years. Mark  |  IP: Logged

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