What is lamp life?
Unlike filament or fluorescent lamps, EL lamps do not catastrophically or abruptly fail. Instead the lamp brightness will gradually decrease over long periods of use, EL lamp life is affected by voltage, frequency, temperature, and humidity. Humidity is by far the strongest contributor to shortened lamp life unless special manufacturing processes are employed. However, even in the absence of humidity, the phosphor itself will gradually lose its efficiency over time and the lamp brightness will gradually decrease. Unfortunately, quantifying lamp life is difficult because of variations in use, environment and operating conditions. Generally, lamp life can be defined in terms of the time it takes the lamp brightness to decrease to a percentage of its original value under well-defined operating conditions.
