Yes! Lumens matter when considering a projector. There are many important factors when considering what projector will work best for you, whether you need a projector for home, school, office space, or your church. Lumens is always listed in a projector’s specs and it’s a very important factor. Simply put, the more lumens your projector can produce, the brighter the image will be and the less you need to worry about whether or not the shades are drawn in your space.
What are lumens?
Lumens are the measurement used to measure the brightness of a light from any source, i.e., projectors. The more lumens a light has, the brighter the light is.
You will often see the term ANSI lumens which stands for American National Standards Institute.
When it comes to projectors, lumens describe how bright the light coming from the projector lamp is, and how well your image will be displayed on a screen. The biggest competing factor here is ambient light. Any light from the room you are in will alter the image coming out of the projector. This is why movie theaters are almost pitch black.
How many lumens in a candle (and other examples)?
To help you understand lumens, here are some approximate examples of lumens in other sources:
- Candle – 14 lumens
- 100-watt lightbulb – 1600 lumens
- Sunset – 400 lumens
- Office with florescent lighting – 400 lumens
- Lighting on a movie set – 1000 lumens
- Sunny day – As much as 100,000 lumens
- Video projector – anywhere from 500 lumens to 10,000 lumens
Do lumens matter?
Lumens are a very important factor in buying a projector. The brighter the projector the less ambient light matters and the farther you can place the projector away from the screen. If the projector is not very bright, you will only be able to see the image in a dark room.
As you can imagine, a projector’s specs will be for the brightness the projector can produce at its peak. The brightness or a projector will degrade over time. Its eco-mode will also be less bright than non eco-mode, so turn it off if you are in a room with ambient light.
| Type of space | Lumens needed |
|---|---|
| Living room with lights off | 1,500 to 2,000 lumens |
| Office or classroom where lights can be dimmed or outside at night | 3,000 lumens |
| Church with moderate amount of ambient light | 5,000 lumens |
| Living room with lights on | 4,000 – 5,000 lumens |
| Movie theatre | 20,000 lumens |
How lumens can decrease over time
In projectors, the light source is the bulb in the lamp. The bulb is very important to the amount of brightness a projector displays and over time the brightness from this bulb will decline. Depending on the projector, you might need to buy a new lamp after using it for many years, or even just a few years.