Spare bulbs

[Radiant]

Hello all. I'm the lighting guy for my church. I'm a volunteer, not staff. One of my biggest headaches is trying to get the equipment we need. To this end, I'm trying to work up how many spare bulbs we should have on hand, per quarter or per year. So I guess I need to know the lifespan of a few things:

1. Par64 1kW WFL
2. Par56 500W WFL
3. 575W Ellipsoidal
4. 1kW Fresnel
5. Mac 600
6. Coemar ProSpot 250 LX

Sorry, I'm not sure what specific bulb goes in the Mac's or the Coemar's. Reason is, I've never changed them! We have 2 Mac 600's, purchased used in March of this year. They came with bulbs in them, I have no idea how many hours were on them before they got to us. The Coemar's have been in service for over 3 years without a bulb change!
So can anyone give me a ballpark figure for the lifespan of these bulbs? Thanks!

 

[Footer]

First... and I hate to do this... its a lamp... now that we got that out there...

You are going to have to tell use what specific lamp you have in each fixture, give us the lamp code imprented on it. If you know that code, you can look up the standard lamp life of that lamp. Roughly, figure out how many hours you can run that fixture in a given week, devide that out with the expected lamp hours, and you should have a ballpark figure. Of course the expected lamp life is the best case scenero. If you are warming your lamps before taking them to full, not bumping them on and off all the time, and only strike your movers once or twice a day, you should get close to the expected life. I would buy at least a 10% or 20% over your expected blow outs. Usually, for every 5 or so fixtures in an inventory I like to have 1 spare lamp. I know this may seem like a lot, but then again, at some point you will use the lamps. There is really no such thing as having to many spare lamps.

 

[Radiant]

Well then, lamps it is...

I don't have the codes with me at the moment. I'll try to jot them down tomorrow when I'm at the church. I'm most concerned with the Coemar lamps as they've never been changed in three years. I've heard that a lamp that's been run severely past it's lifespan can burst. I'd really like to avoid that, as the Coemar's hang over the stage.

I estimate the Pars, the Mac's, and the Coemar's see 10 to 12 hours of use per week. The intels should only be struck at most two times in a day's use. The Pars don't get much of a warm-up, and some of them are bumped a bit. Most of their run time is at 100%. It's rare for me to run them less than full fader.

The ellipsoidals and Fresnels see quite a bit less use, perhaps 4 to 6 hours per week. They are used quite gently as well.

Could someone perhaps tell me what lamps to use for the Mac 600's and the Coemar ProSpot 250 XL's?

 

[Grog12]

First... and I hate to do this... its a lamp... now that we got that out there....

**sigh** Both are correct Footer.

As for spare lamps...you really never can have too many. Apart from how often they're on how often are they moved?

Generally Footers 1 per five instruments should get you through.

 

[SteveB]

Hello all. I'm the lighting guy for my church. I'm a volunteer, not staff. One of my biggest headaches is trying to get the equipment we need. To this end, I'm trying to work up how many spare bulbs we should have on hand, per quarter or per year. So I guess I need to know the lifespan of a few things:

1. Par64 1kW WFL
2. Par56 500W WFL
3. 575W Ellipsoidal
4. 1kW Fresnel
5. Mac 600
6. Coemar ProSpot 250 LX

Sorry, I'm not sure what specific bulb goes in the Mac's or the Coemar's. Reason is, I've never changed them! We have 2 Mac 600's, purchased used in March of this year. They came with bulbs in them, I have no idea how many hours were on them before they got to us. The Coemar's have been in service for over 3 years without a bulb change!
So can anyone give me a ballpark figure for the lifespan of these bulbs? Thanks!

I going to guess that the Par64, Par56, 575w Ellipsoidal and Fresnel lamps are all hi-output, short life @ around 300 hrs. typical. That's the typical lamp used in these fixtures, unless someone made/makes a deliberate choice to go with the long life/2000hr lamps.

Cannot say as to the Mac anc Coemar, but a typical High End Studio Spot lamp at 575w generally lasts 350 hrs., maybe a bit more.

SB

 

[icewolf08]

Well, your Mac 600's take a Philips MSR 575/2 which has an expected life of about 1000 hours. They run about $150 each. The Coemar ProSpot 250 takes a Philips 250W MSD/2 with a lamp life of about 2000 hours. They cost about $120 each.

If your ERS instruments are Source 4's you have 4 basic lamp choices, HPL575 (high output ~300hr. life), HPL575X (long life ~1000hrs), HPL750 (high output ~300hr. life), HPL750X (long life ~1000hrs). HPL lamps average about $16 each.

If you have any other ERS fixture that takes a medium bi-pin lamp then you have a large variety of lamp choice, and there are many threads on what lamps are better if you search for it here.

 

[ship]

As above - gotta get more info as there is lots of choices in lamps - especially movers and Leko lamps.

1K PAR 64 WFL - either a Q1000PAR64WFL at 4,000hr but less output or more likely a FFS at 800hr and more commonly used.
500 PAR 56 WFL - is 4,000 hours
575w Ellipsoidal - gotta get more info on the fixture.
1Kw Fresnel - depends upon what wattage lamp is used, than the type of fixture used.
Mac 600 - of the most normal lamps used and there is lots of variety including incandescent you could use, it is either the MSR 575/2 as a base lamp type available from most manufacturers or the MSD 575 as a more expensive but longer life and higher color temperature version. There is other variations and brands available including the incandescent “Indy 575" that could potentially be in use. Also, HSR, USR, RSR, CSR, AMHK, EHR, BA, amongst many types of letterings with other stuff to follow in similar lamps is possible to be in use. Most likely and first guess is a MSR 575/2 lamp. There abouts of 750 to 1,000 hours in expected lamp life. The more expensive MSD versions are in the 3,000 hour range.
Coemar ProSpot 250 LX - Same concept with the ProSpot - MSD 250/2 as a base lamp 3,000 hours lamp life from Philips but many brands make this lamp and there is a wide range of both MSR and MSD types available in dial in your color temperature, output etc range on the market. Also with the above, dial in your price range dependant on brand, stability and reliability. Moving light lamps are a type of thing you gotta replace with what you have, listen to experts on what’s similar at times but cheaper in going other brands, works in the fixture but dials in your lamp life, color temperature and higher output wants etc. In general - lots on the market, though in this case there is no incandescent version.

As for lamp hours - each moving light fixture will normally track the lamp hours as long as the lamp hour tracker was reset the last time the lamp was installed. Should also be able to scroll thru the fixture menu and find out how many hours that lamp has been in use. Compare this to the expected lamp life and you will get a good idea of when it’s getting time to change the lamp as a goal.