Do not lamp them off *overnight from day to day*??
That's... malpractice. If anyone did that in any of my 4 houses, they be paying for the lamps. If not the fixtures.
I have to differ from you on that. Especially on older VL fixtures which don't dim when the shutters were closed. Overheating is a serious problem especially when in rest mode. Normal standard for touring is yes, test before the show and leave them on until the show. I was initially lamp life concerned years ago "why are you leaving these fixtures on?" But very experienced touring people say it's worth leaving them on between testing and the show. Most important reason, too late to fix it during the show amongst other explinations.
I once did a table
tracking all the lamps installed into each
fixture on the "Walking With Dinosours" tour a few years ago over a period of a year. Results were astounding! First that the
Mac 2K and the VL-3K lamp used the same lamp, but the VL-3K went
thru a lot more lamps. (I don't have my table at home.) Also
fixture damage, the
Mac 2K fixtures were older in
ballast and used crappier lamp sockets initially, but overall failed lamp inspections (I inspected every lamp under a magnifying glass) over that year, more problems on the VL fixtures especially later. VL fixtures don't dim when shutters are closed. In general, both fixtures used the same lamps with a rated lamp life of 750 hours. The dimming could in theory extend that, but "Change by 1,000 hours" became policy in general. But still the fact is expected lamp life of a lamp is still what it's lamp life is. Leaving a full
intensity lamp shuttered for hours on end before the show was destroying the VL-3K fixtures and lamps faster.
Did have an idiot lamp changer on the tour in part causing problems... putting perfectly good lamps into perfectly bad lamp sockets. That's where I was able to come up with evidence of putting a good lamp into a bad lamp
socket will cause the good lamp to fail about 100 hours less each time a new lamp was put into the bad lamp
socket. My nick name for him was "Crack Pipe Willie" because he always described his reason for removing the lamps as crack pipes. No matter how many emails were sent to the tour about bad lamp sockets... he never really caught onto the concept of putting good lamps into bad sockets, and 20 or so years later still doesn't care. No matter how many e-mails to crew chief's and project managers... Crack Pipe Willie still often on tour with us, thankfully most
stock has gone
LED.
Also found out that the VL-1KA
fixture broke a lot of lamps in using a follow spot lamp not rugged in design to be bouncing off dock plates while installed in a
fixture. Blew
thru a huge amount of those lamps.
Lamp hours do not change. If you "Do not lamp them off *overnight from day to day*??". - Tim Mc, you have a rated lamp life of a lamp leaving them on goes against.
Manual for the
fixture should specify operating hours verses lamp off time specifcation, and also lamp
socket replacements. I would follow it. You also have air conditioning loads, electricity uesed and
fixture maintenance. Not sure what
current lamp sockets or QD terminals are rated for in
fixture in question but in the above fixtures, they were rated for three lamps per
socket when following lamp on/off requirements.
Offered some news today to the assistant Dpt. Mgr. of moving lights based on evidence. He was asking how some Mega Pointe lamps he was neeing to change today were getting up to 3,000 hours before needing to be changed. 1,500 hour expected or reccommended lamp life. I explained, brand new lights like a brand new car will exceed expectations when new. He was good with that. This has often been found and does
throw off expectations of
fixture needs.... It's normal and in part why above with the above WWD tour I had to negotiate a change by date due to new fixtures on the tour with the General Manager and touring staff.
Open for debate on malpractice. Learning your rational especially in paying for the lamps. Can go off
line if wanted, but interested and curious about your policy. There is very no doubt very important reasons for your policy all should know about. I would follow the specificaions of the
fixture manual for lamp off time.
