Protecting your ceiling mounted projector from surge and back-up power?

I use two levels of surge protection for the 'theater' equipment.

The first level is installed at the main panel - a whole house surge suppressor. The second level is at the equipment rack.

Currently I do not use a UPS for backup on the projector bulb. Then again, yesterday, I experienced the first power outage due to a storm in almost 12 years. The outage lasted only a few minutes.

If you have frequent power outages at your location, you may want to add a UPS. Otherwise, the UPS will be nothing more than a big paperweight adding possible Power quality problems to the system.

How many people power their projector from their AV equipment rack?

I ran my power to my ceiling projector an entirely different route from the video cabling. So this brings up another question.

How small is the smallest decent UPS that would handle a 1080p Panasonic AE1000U? I don't have much room at all where it would need to go. Seems like a good idea in general though.

It will be interesting to read this thread as it progresses.

Powerbridge link dont work...

I use pro level UPS's from APC. The key to a good UPS is whether or not it is a simulated sine wave or a true sine wave output. My PJ is on this UPS as is all my pricey gear. I've had power outagesin the middle of a movie and never knew it. Old clocks in the other part of the house were reset/fridge PF light on, etc. Very nice to have it protected.

I just use a cheapy $7 1100J variety found at Menards. Remember most homeowner's policies cover equipment damage due to lightning strikes.

Also unless you live in an area that suffers from a lot of brownouts and outages a UPS is probably overkill. The key to remember is if your projector shutsdown abnormally is not to restart until is has sufficiently cooled. My projector fan typically runs about 30s to a min after shutdown, I am sure it helps with the life of the bulb. I am not going to worry about the 1 out of 1000 abnormal shutdowns without the projector fan running.

Do some cost analysis on all the money you spend to try to theoretically save some bulb life and I think you will find it is a money losing proposition. Just save the cash for the bulb that may one day be needed.

You need to find the projector wattage rating (current rating is fine) and figure out how long the projector fan needs to run if the power goes out. The UPS will need to supply this current to the projector during the cool down period.

P.S. I am not against using a UPS for backup, I have just seen too many instances where a cheap UPS caused more problems than it fixes.

When I mentioned size. I really meant physical size. I would need the smallest sized possible. I'll probably just go without, not that I have the best power, but not that I have the worst in my area either. The real danger is premature lamp failure right? Doesn't seem that bad for the few times it may actually come into play.

I don't think you can go wrong using a UPS. Where I live power just does not go out, it goes out and comes on immediately and does this many times in a row. I have used a UPS with AVR and have had no trouble.

I used a flange covered inlet.

Power --> rack --> UPS --> inlet --> outlet --> projector

Here is a link to a sample of the inlet... http://www.telephonestuff.com/Catalog/Model_4937.htm

This avoids having a male to male extention cord in the mix which is against code or having to run an extention cord through a conduit to the projector in the above setup.

Here is one of the $20 Leviton inlets in use for the projector circuit. Two bucket budget rack.



You need to keep in mind that it's not just cooling the bulb that you have to think about after a power outage. As has been reported elsewhere when the power is cut the temperature rises in other areas of the projector that are normally protected by the fans. This is where some real damage can occur. Premature bulb failure is the tip of the iceberg.

Just make sure your home owners insurance is up to date... then wait for the free upgrade strike.

I just ran an extensions cord through the walls and out to my rack where it plugs into my power condition which is connected to my UPS. The prior owner had a surge suppressor in the ceiling jack, but I wanted battery backup and power conditioning as well. For me it was easy to run, as my media room is on the 2nd floor and I have attic above.

I guess I should wire it "properly." I am not terribly worried about a fire, but if there is one, I can just see my insurance company nailing me on this.

Okay, I have a question. How does one install the in-wall electrical box to hold these things without tearing up your drywall? I doubt that I am supposed to use a dog-eared low voltage box, so how do I drive the nails in of a high voltage box without making a huge hole and having to repair drywall?

I have a wall-mounted LCD TV that I might want to use this on also. Anyone have any ideas on where to find really short power cords? I am envisioning having the Powerbridge inlet right next to a normal outlet, which would need an itty bitty extension cord. I may just have the outlet moved I guess, but thought I would ask.

See:

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/e...oldworkbox.htm

Awesome. I did not realize they made blue dog-eared boxes. The 3' cord will also help. Now, the entire setup will not look quite as clean, as my current power cord goes through my drop tube and disappers into the ceiling, but it will look pretty good (and not void my insurance)!

For surge protection, I used one of these in a ceiling outlet when I had a ceiling mounted PJ:

Leviton outlet with built in surge protector

Well I guess I'm fortunate that I don't have a $3000.00 + projector.

But seriously, I'm not the type to sit around worrying about what the worst case scenario is. I figured the Leviton is an easy/cheap/legit product that provides some level of cheap insurance. The fact that they're a well established manufacturer that provides such products for hospitals and other mission critical applications gives added assurance that the product is more than just marketing and fluff (not suggesting that other products are).
How many joules do we need?

"...And don't get caught up in the energy dissipation (most often expressed in joules) and response time features that some surge protectors tout, Wilson advises; they're not a reliable indication of quality. Instead, just make sure that the surge protector is UL 1449 rated, which means that it meets the Underwriter Laboratory's tested standard."
-Source: "Busting the Biggest PC Myths
We expose the bad advice that
wastes your time and money"
PC Magazine, June 2004.

-Bruce
(P.S. By the way, Corvettes are historically awful, regardless of the tires.)

It was pointed out in this thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=886088


that it doesn't make sense for the fan to run after the projector turns off is to protect the bulb from overheating after the power was cut. (see the thread for detailed discussion -- but in short, the hottest thing in the PJ isn't going to get hotter after the heat source is removed.).

Instead one poster reported that PJ mfrs have stated to him that the fan cools the PJ when it is turned off b/c the PJ can't start while hot -- it can only start when cool. So in order to be turned back on again shortly after being turned off, it must be cooled quickly.

Other posters reasoned that an additional possible benefit of the fan would be to cool the non-lamp parts of the PJ (i.e., the parts (circuit boards, other components near the lamp) that themselves don't make the heat, but may absorb too much heat from a still hot lamp if there were no fan running.

But I didn't see any good reason to believe that that temperature increase to non lamp components would be large (it would be distributed over many many things) or worth worrying about. It could be, but I haven't seen anything persuasive to show that it is.

Has anyone had any real experience with a PJ malfunctioning do to excess heat from a power cutoff?

Also, Sony, for example, explicity warns that UPS use may damage its projectors: http://www.iq.sony.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/...ARSET_TOP=TRUE

So has anyone had any experience with damage to a PJ from a UPS?

The short answer to this is it depends on the specific projector. For instance the back of the bulb may have a heat sink on it directly in line with the fan. The reason could be so that the coatings on the front of the bulb do not overheat. If power is cut off suddenly, heat can soak from the back of the bulb to the front, damaging the coating. The same theory applies to things like polarizers and color wheels. The JVC G series projectors have been mentioned in the past as needing to be fan cooled after shutting down for reasons other than immediate restart. I can't find the thread now (probably deep in the archives) but it has been discussed.


I suspect that's related to UPSs which output "simulated" sine wave power, as GetGray eludes to earlier in the thread.


Not from heat per-se, but I blame a rapid series of brownouts for drastically reducing the life of one of my projector bulbs. The power dimmed 2-3 times within a couple of minutes before going out completely. It wasn't during a storm either, it turned out to be gophers chewing on the buried electrical lines. Shortly thereafter, my 6,000 hr bulb completely failed after only 1,300 hours of use.

Here's what I discovered about using a UPS with a projector. I have a small, inexpensive UPS from APC mounted on the floor joist above my drop ceiling. The projector and a network switch are the only things plugged into it.

During a couple of power hiccups, I found that the projector went dark in spite of the UPS. Here is some text from APC regarding the UPS "transfer time".

"Depending on the model of the UPS, the transfer time (time it takes for the unit to transfer from On Line to On Battery) can vary anywhere from 2 milliseconds to 8 milliseconds. Modern computer and computer-related power supplies can "ride through" power outages as long as 10-20 milliseconds"

Even though PC's can withstand those transfer times, it seems that projector bulbs cannot. A switching UPS has to be pretty much at the low end of that 2-8 ms range to work on a projector. This varies between models, and even between units of the same model. More expensive UPS's don't use "switching" at all, they basically run off the battery full time.

In any case, I think having a UPS for your projector is a good thing, but it may not work as you expect. It might be best to purchase one from a store with a good return policy and test it before installing it permanently.

DE