Above all a warmed
filament rule I have always lived with - perhaps if not needed most of the show, it could become warmed a few minutes before need if a special as a concept. But mostly from what I have known, you always warm a lamp some so when going to full, or especially if strobing, the
filament isn't shocked and or will go to full output sooner.
Here is a
SOP where I work I installed. 2Kw
Fresnel lamps are never to be directly plugged into an
outlet. Each one tested in prepping for a show will be plugged into a 2Kw
dimmer, and run up directly with care. Anyone guess why such a rule was needed? What does that have to do with higher than say a household 60w lamp in plugging in other higher wattage lamps?
Ah'
Mark... that getting up to 3,000+ hours for a 750 hour lamp
rating lamp is semi-old school practice now. I now have semi-approval of at 1,000 hours for a 750 hour lamp... it's ok to replace it. Granted that those that know this replace the 2-3,000 hour lamps at this
point also in calling them old. Mostly I see these days most lamps are fairly frosted or vapor clouded over at least at this
point at under 400 hours. So no it's not a total snowball in as if projecting a
gobo with a
fluorescent lamp, but mostly by 350hours modern lamps rated for 750 hours are fairly useless already. If a
reflector lamp rated for 2,000 hours, too soon to tell at random at this
point, but mostly they have clouds in them at 500 hours.
We are talking about completely different fixtures, and I would gladly go back to the final upgrades of the
Mac 2K
fixture over any VL-3K (in them getting more serviceable), or other elder fixtures such as a
wash where if it's a snowball, it was still fine to the crew using it.
Most modern fixtures these days would be lucky to get to 750 hours before the efficient light output is "dim" well before expected lamp life. This includes the lamps rated for 2,000 hours.