I've had my Sanyo Z2 for close to 3 years now, not sure how many hours as I haven't checked in some time. My basement is pretty cool anyway, so I'm sure that helps.

That's the other thing I was wondering. All the people with long bulb life seemed to have really cool looking home theaters. Maybe the HT gods are smiling on you

I'll vouch for the circuitry. My projector (when improperly powered off) will turn back on and display "OVER TEMPERATURE" in big scary red letters. It well then cool itself off, shut off and on until it's properly cycled itself off.

As for UPS's, they're basically a nice padding, you can even get single outlet models that you put up in the ceiling or wherever your projector is plugged in.