Oh, Oh, Power outtage

[George Bellefontaine]

Well, after 9 years of using my UPS with my two projectors, I finally saw the ol' UPS in action. A nearby lightning strike causeds a major power outtage in my area. I was near the end of a movie when I lost picture and sound ( my receiver and players are only on surge suppressors ) but the PJ was still running with a blue screen and the UPS was beeping. I shut down the PJ and after the cooldown I shut off the UPS. Now I don't know whether power failures shorten a lamp life or not, but I now feel a lot better about making the investment for the UPS, because up 'til now I was wondering why I even bothered to have a UPS.

[Kevin D]

Without a cool down you will definitely shorten the life of the bulb.. Whether or not you would ever notice it in consumer products is a different story..

You do want to check the UPS every few months or so. The battery can fail without you knowing it, until it switches over during a power failure.

My whole equipment closet is running of a Rotel (APC) unit. Including the wireless router and cable modem. One night I was listening to music and surfing the net and didn't realise the power was out until I tried to turn on a light!

Panamax actually makes a unit that you can program IR codes to shutdown your projector automatically before the battery gives out. We used it with a Runco VX-60, where the bulb could explode if not cooled.

Kevin D.

[George Bellefontaine]

Hi, Kevin, my unit has a battery check button, plus it has a built in warning sensor that sets off an alarm when the battery is low.

[impala454]

Nice. I have had the power go out a few times on me and the UPSs have given me plenty of time to safely shut down my DLP TV and computers. Definitely an invaluable (and essential IMHO) piece of equipment.

[Dean McManis]

After working with business class projectors for years I can say that shutting down the projector without allowing for the proper cool down kills bulbs quickly. With business projectors some people have the projector set up on a power strip and just shut off the power completely when they have finished their presentation, and I've heard of several times when this action just killed the bulb right away, and other times when the super fast cool down of just shutting off the power severely shortened the bulb life, allowing only 3-6 more uses before bulb failure. Of course in business use the guys who shut off the power do not face the consequences of their actions because it's not until the next projector use when you see that the bulb is dead.

Currently I live in a place with reliable power so I am not worried about it, as I just make sure to shut down the projector correctly. But when I finish building my new house (which is in a rural area) I will definitely be adding a UPS for the projector.

[George Bellefontaine]

Currently I live in a place with reliable power

Same here, Dean, but the problem comes with storms and I usually don't go to the theater when a storm is active. Still, as I said in the opening post, I owned the UPS for 9 years before it actually had to kick into gear. Now that I see it has possibly saved me $400 for a new lamp, I am glad I bought it.