6000 Hour Projector Lamps

Projector lamp technology has been progressing since Philips developed the UHP projector lamp in the late 1990’s. Technological breakthroughs first came when Philips developed a lamp that lasted longer than the traditional metal halide lamps that were used in the first rudimentary projectors.

The problem with metal halide lamps is that they were not bright enough for the needs of consumers who were buying projectors. And many consumers were not purchasing projectors because the ANSI lumens rates were not high enough; viewing rooms had to be completely cut off from any source of outside light in order to make the images that projectors produced watchable. And so, out of necessity, the UHP projector lamp was developed.

In fact, the UHP projector lamp is not entirely different from its cousin the metal halide lamp. Both are ARC lamps and both operate by snapping an electrical current across an ARC or space that is encased in a small bubble of gas. In the case of the UHP lamp, a small bubble of mercury vapor is used.

When the UHP projector lamp first debuted, it still had a lot of bugs that needed to be fixed. One of the major bugs that needed to be improved upon was the lamp life. Lamp life in projectors that used the first UHP projector lamps was unacceptable by today’s standards; a dismal 1000 – 1500 hours. This meant that if you wanted a projector to be with your company or in your living room for years, you were forced to purchase projector lamps over and over again.

Fortunately, as time progressed, Philips got better and better at developing this technology, producing lamps that lasted longer and were brighter. (Philips produces projector lamps for several leading brand name manufacturers of projectors). Fast forward to 2005 and you have the relatively new 6000 hour projector lamp.

Let’s put 6000 hours in perspective. To run your projector for 6000 hours, you would have to run the lamp 24 hours a day for 250 days straight (we do NOT, under any circumstances, recommend this procedure). That means that the projector lamp would have to run for over 8 months straight!

It will be interesting to see if lamp life increases in the future. Please note that all 120W projector lamps sold here at MyProjectorLamps.com last 6000 hours as well!

Until next time – take it easy.