I've always thought if there was a GTA VI - The 6ix set in a fictionized Toronto would be a nice nod to Toronto.

Yeah, I like those, no use buying one though as I wouldn't be able to afford to fill it up..! Those V8 engines aren't exactly frugal and our fuel prices are insane 

I’ve recently gotten into late 90s early 2000’s Jaguars. I would love to have a 1995 Jaguar XJ 4.0 with the supercharged V8 engine, and the Mercedes derived automatic transmission.

1972 Toyota Celica

 

@Mandolin Girl - Hah, good one. ;D

Yeah I don't think banning E26 sockets would happen. There are a lot of LEDs that make use of those sockets too. I can't imagine they would force everyone on a new socket standard. They attempted it with GU-24 and that never really took off.

I'm also suspicious at the laser focus behind lighting bans. If energy savings was the goal there are other sectors like HVAC to investigate. Besides in my area, high energy costs have made people adopt LED before any ban did so banning it just seems like a waste of time and money.

I believe the 15A restrictor at least in the old days was just a breaker across the incoming power lines that tripped at 15A as there were instructions on how to reset the device which involved toggling a breaker on the meter. The newer ones are probably tied to your smart meter as you mentioned. Yeah a reliable off-grid system requires quite a significant investment upfront and for continued operation. I'd imagine you'll need a combination of solar, wind, and probably a small fuel powered generator to have reliable off-grid power which adds to the cost but is probably the only way to achieve true independence from the utilities. Now I doubt they'll shut off your power for using "banned lighting" as long as you pay your bills.

I've never heard of the power restriction to 15A before. That is interesting. With the new smart meters that probably is easier to do. Here, with non-payment, I've only heard of the utility disconnecting power at the meter, locking it out, and I have heard of customers reconnecting themselves. In the illegal reconnect scenario, the utility will then have to come out again to cut power at the pole. And I've heard of a homeowner climbing the pole to reconnect it there too! The utility charges a reconnect fee even after the bill is paid up. It's very hard on people that are struggling to afford electricity already.

Having an off-grid solar + wind (or even small hydro) with diesel generator backup would seem ideal. Use whatever electricity you want, whatever lighting you want, maintain your own system, not be reliant on the grid if it goes down and not have to pay the utilities ever-increasing costs. But the start up costs for such a system are high and the maintenance can be a challenge too. It was surprising to me how many solar panels one needs to make it thru darker, cloudy, winter days when you need more lighting and more heating. There are so many losses in the system, the panels, the wiring, transformers, all that need to be taken into account. Having magnetic (especially NPF) ballasts in lighting creates more losses which is not so great in an off-grid system.

 

Well, there's long-lasting in burning hours and long-lasting in years, when a lamp is infrequently used. In the latter example, there was a Sylvania R30 reflector incandescent installed in my parents' house in 1978 that was still working when the house was sold in 2019.

I have had a a couple Philips and Sylvania low-wattage HPS (35 and 50w) that have done over 40,000 hours. A GE Compax 15w magnetic CFL that did close to 20,000 hours. I would say that I have had a handful of lamps that have done about twice their average rated hours. And quite a few that only reached half their rated hours or less.

The winner, though, has to be the neon indicator light in one of my power strips. Nowadays they only seem to last a few years, but on my square quad power strip from 1984, the little neon is still burning steadily and has been on nearly 24/7 the last 30 years. Probably close to 300,000 hrs on it now!                                                                                                                                       

What Universal going out of business? Isn't Universal the last company that manufactures HID ballasts?

I still see a number of fixtures with E26 sockets still being sold but mostly with decorative edison style lamps.