Projector Lumens Guide: How to Choose the Right Projector Lumens for your Installation

While there are a few prospective projector buyers that know next to nothing about projectors, a good number, from our experience, have heard about projector lumens, at least. Many, we’ve also seen, believe that they necessarily need very high projector lumens. That is not exactly so.

Sure, projector lumens is an important factor in projector performance. Still, you need to understand the role of lumens, so as to judge how much of it you really need. Part of why that’s important is that higher projector lumens will usually attract higher cost (other things being equal). It’s also true that every projection situation will not require the same level of lumens. You consequently need to determine how far to go in your quest for higher lumens, given the cost implications.

What is Projector Lumens?

Every projector has a light source, predominantly projector lamp, though other light sources like laser also get used. It is the powerful bright light of that light source that is beamed at the LCD or DLP panel of the projector to produce the image that’s projected. Without that light, nothing will show.

Lumens is a measure of the brightness of a light source. In the case of a projector, it’s the strength of brightness of the projector light. The light output of a projector is stated in lumens, or often, as ANSI (American National Standards Institute) lumens. Remember that this light is critical for generating the projected image. More lumens will mean more image brightness. A projector of 4000 lumens is expected to be brighter than one of 2500 lumens.

How Much Lumens Will I Need for My Projector?

If every presentation environment was the same, we would all need the same lumens for our projectors. But that is hardly the case. Presentation environments differ. One aspect of that difference, so critical to projector image brightness, is the presence or otherwise of ambient light. Ambient light is light that is present in the presentation space, whether natural light coming into the room or installed lights.

Ambient light is what primarily defines the amount of lumens that you need for your projector. The size of screen and throw ratio are also important. Larger screens will require higher lumens for image to display sharply on them, but ambient light is the key factor.

The point is that the more the presence of light in the presentation space, the more image contrast is lowered and the more the image is washed out. Ambient light will definitely diminish image quality, but higher lumens will work to reduce its impact. If there is more ambient light, you need more projector lumens.

Against that backdrop, we can classify presentation environments in the following categories of brightness, for this purpose:

    Dark environment – lights are off.
    Dimly lit environment – lights are dimmed
    Moderately lit environment – light are on, but not dazzling
    Well-lit environment – Full light presence
    Brightly lit environment – dazzling light

 
There’s nothing hard and fast here, as this is just an attempt to classify levels of light presence in the presentation environment. Each level of light will require a projector with the lumens capacity that can counter the amount of ambient light that is present.

We can go further to expatiate on this, with these illustrations:
   

Lights Off: This is like in your living room, where you have control over your lights and can choose to switch them off when using your projector. That will also apply to a purpose-built home theatre room where lights are turned off to watch movies. In this kind of dark environment, projector lumens requirement is low and can be something in the range of 1500 to 2500 lumens.
   

Dimmed lights: This will apply to office rooms, boardrooms, classrooms, or living rooms, where lights are on but dimmed. For such minimal light presence, projector brightness of 3000 to 3500 lumens will generally be considered adequate.
   

Moderate lighting: This would be the case in fairly large space as some churches, halls and auditoriums with significant light presence but not dazzling light. Here, higher brightness of 4000 to 5000 lumens will be required. Anything higher, if it can be afforded, will be added advantage.
   

Well-lit large venues with higher ambient light: Like bigger churches, larger halls, etc. Brightness of 5000 to 7000 should be considered, when sourcing.
   

Other brightly lit-up venues: Say stadiums, These will need much higher brightness, even up to 20000 lumens, depending on what can be afforded.

Summing up on Projector Brightness/Lumens

Many factors are important in choosing a projector. The brightness, stated in lumens, is one of the most critical. You need a projector that offers enough brightness to deliver impressive image display to appeal to viewers.

However, you need to also consider that your lumens requirement will depend on the light situation of the presentation environment. Unnecessarily aiming for higher lumens at higher cost, when not really required, will certainly be wasteful.

With this guide, you hopefully have a better picture of what your requirement should be. While nothing is cast in iron, this guide does put your lumens requirement in better perspective. It should therefore help your decision-making process.