Lighting-Gallery.net
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Lumex120 on August 24, 2015, 04:10:09 PM
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-When you hear "Mercury" You immediately think "Mercury vapor"
-You see "Low sodium" on a can of beans and think they reduced the sodium in HPS lamps.
-you cry when you see recently installed m400r3's on the freeway being replaced with cheapo LED flyswatters (doesn't apply to me , but I still get annoyed when I see it.)
-when you go into a gym with a drop ceiling, you automatically look up to see if the troffers are mercury vapor or metal halide
-You look forward to a road trip for a long time, just because you will get to see recently relamped MV cobraheads...
-you take a bunch of burned out "treasures" from dumpsters (I need to break that habit ::))
-In your (very small) chicken coop, you have a 25w full spectrum CFL, a circline ceiling fixture, 11w s14 red signlight, and a 250w Mercury lowbay, so that the chickens have "enough light" (Applies to me... ;D)
What can you add?
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-You hope for a 5 second power interruption when in a mall/store/public place lit with some flavour of HID lamps just to be able to see (and experience) the hot restrike. Unfortunately, it never happened to me except in the gym at school. I almost lost hope on this one as there are very few HID indoor lights around here (they were "upgraded").
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-When someone tosses the word fluorescent and I automatically assume fluorescent tube.
I remember hitting the light switch (unintentionally) in the gym and the teacher got pissed since the lights have to cool down.
-When someone says "habitat" or "restore" I automatically think of habitat for humanity restore.
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About the dumpster thing: post pics of the etched on lg. Some things may be very old and worth hanging onto.
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@Solanaceae, it is mainly common incandescents, but when I find something unusual, I hold onto it. (I have only found 1 thing a mogul base incandescent, but I tossed it because it was pretty common and I had to make room for a printer)
Also, kind of off-topic, but at the local menards people just leave dead lamps on the store shelves. It kind of annoys me, and it makes more work for the employees. >:(
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I've sen people replace good fluorescents with dead ones and then returning them to the store. ::) >:(
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When your out shopping and the first thing you look at is the flouro fittings and not the clothes/food/other item your supposed to be looking at! My girlfriend gets mad at me for that Lol
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You look up at any store to see what type of lights they have.Applaud if they are using mercury,MH,CMH-but BOO if they are using crappy LED.Note which MH lights need relamping.-And check next time you visit that place.Go right to the light dept at favorite stores!Buy any fixture or bulb you like-same with portable lights.Look at the mercury or HPS streetlights while driving at night and glad they still have them!Admire the MH parking lot lights and BOO the LED ones!
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When you think of a public place (or a house for that matter) you immediately thing about what type of lighting is there.
I second the checking the EOL MH lamps and checking next visit... :)
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When you walk into a building with poorly maintained lighting and you wish they'd just let you go around and fix everything.
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So true
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-When you enter any store and immediately check out the lighting aisle (hardware stores especially, but supermarkets count too, as do "everything" stores like Walmart or Fred Meyer.
-Being annoyed by poorly maintained/improperly lamped lighting in public places
-Wishing you could have lights you see elsewhere
-You have a MV yardblaster for general lighting, indoors!
-You have random lamps/ballasts/fixtures laying around your office, shop, garage, attic, and yard
-you look up places in the phone book and call them about their scrap dumpster with vintage turret fixtures in there (Actual experience)
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^^ All of those except the last one apply to me. I even occasionally slide lamps/ballasts out of their sleeves/cartons in the store to look at the etches, but I won't open packaging that can't be re-sealed. ;D
I guess you could say the last one somewhat applies to me, since I have contacted various places about obtaining old fixtures.
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I have most all of my fixtures and lamps crammed into my room somewhere, along with a few ballasts. I have a big box o ballasts I'm sending to Jeremy. Some other ballasts, along with the Postline 208v 175w :mv: ballasts I don't have any use for, so I've listed them on the bay. I have three Postline 120v 150w :hps: ballasts, one of which is going to Jeremy as well.
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^^ All of those except the last one apply to me. I even occasionally slide lamps/ballasts out of their sleeves/cartons in the store to look at the etches, but I won't open packaging that can't be re-sealed. ;D
Guilty. I do that ALL the time. ;D
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- When you have a 1000w Powerflood on standby on the dresser for extra light on steroids! Just plug it in and flip the switch and got got a 1Kw MV warming up.
- Applauds when the utility company removes HPS and install white LEDs in place. Bonus cheers if they're the good brand and not from Alibaba. Get royally pissed off when places went cheap and used generic garbage bulbs from eBay or Alibaba in HID fixtures.
- Look at the store's lights and see if it's still T8s or they upgraded to LED tubes. If LEDs then count how many are there and how many dead tubes IF any found for failure rate. And check them regularly to see IF any new failureS have happened.
- Bulbs and ballasts all over the bedroom. Plus fixtures under the bed. Somewhat "organized."
- Tries new LEDs when they're cheap or on clearance. Then put extra copies of LEDs in use around the house as CFLs dies for more light and to lifespan test the LEDs.
- Get pissed off when you sees something you want but it's overpriced in used stuff stores.
- Look for bulb aisles if any in new unknown stores.
- Have a website for your own lamps and fixtures.
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Its funny that we can be into lighting yet completely opposites. I despise all sorts of LED, and cheer HPS !
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- When you have a 1000w Powerflood on standby on the dresser for extra light on steroids! Just plug it in and flip the switch and got got a 1Kw MV warming up.
- Applauds when the utility company removes HPS and install white LEDs in place. Bonus cheers if they're the good brand and not from Alibaba. Get royally pissed off when places went cheap and used generic garbage bulbs from eBay or Alibaba in HID fixtures.
- Look at the store's lights and see if it's still T8s or they upgraded to LED tubes. If LEDs then count how many are there and how many dead tubes IF any found for failure rate. And check them regularly to see IF any new failureS have happened.
- Bulbs and ballasts all over the bedroom. Plus fixtures under the bed. Somewhat "organized."
- Tries new LEDs when they're cheap or on clearance. Then put extra copies of LEDs in use around the house as CFLs dies for more light and to lifespan test the LEDs.
- Get pissed off when you sees something you want but it's overpriced in used stuff stores.
- Look for bulb aisles if any in new unknown stores.
- Have a website for your own lamps and fixtures.
The cree LED way series is decent, and lasts fairly long.
I absolutely effing hate when habitat tries to pull a fast one and put $10 on a near ded lamp or something else in bad shape. I understand that it's a charity, but it gets annoying.
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I know what you mean. My ReStore has used spiral CFLs and incandescents for a dollar each.
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My hab isnt as bad as yours, Nick. I have seen 4 packs of :inc: at my hab for $.25. Zarlog's hab had a 250w cleartop :mv: for $20 though. Isn't as bad as eBay I'll say that.
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The shop have to make a certain income to stay up (otherwise it won't make sense for them to keep operating it and theyll start looking into other ways to make $ for the charity). And they may not allways have the brightest ideas of how to break down the total cost to the individual products....
So just tell them that the price they want for X makes no sense when next door you can buy a new one for the same $....
But really, i see the prices you mention and i can only say that for some things - esp fluorescent lanterns, in dreams i dont get prices that low over here (though i am comparing with new, NOS, damaged-returned etc in normal shops and not second hand)
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I actually prefer LED over HPS, especially good quality flyswatters. The light is distributed more, and the led fixtures around here are a few years old, yet still light the road much better than the hps.
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My ReStore is still good enough with prices that I'll keep going back. I typically get great deals on the things I buy there. I'm also sometimes willing to pay them more for an item than it's really worth, just because it goes to a good cause.
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Excellent point, Nick. My hab is probably expensive because it moved to a new building in March, a larger building which was a former arcade. The parking lot is lit by :mv: 400w ITT model 400 and ael 125s.
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-you vigorously scrub the dirty brass base of an old lamp you received to get to look fresh off the line.
-you shake a package and hear frames rattling, indicating a merc.
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Could as well be any type of HID..... Actually over here the rattling frame will only be in tubular lamps but NOT in MBF or SON-E
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@Ash: I knew a few mercs were set to deliver to my house, you get the idea...
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You have a box containing mostly the female end of grounded extension cords, the male ends being used to make plug in light fixtures.
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You always cut the cords off of dead appliances, to use for wiring up fixtures for testing!
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You always cut the cords off of dead appliances, to use for wiring up fixtures for testing!
yup! I have a box of cords waiting to be used.
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I use that and wire-able plugs as well. Trust the wire-able ones more for high currents
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You look for day burners on Google Street View.
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-You look forward to a road trip for a long time, just because you will get to see recently relamped MV cobraheads...
If you need to pretend that this delight is not what causes the trip at all...
-You hope for a 5 second power interruption when in a mall/store/public place lit with some flavour of HID lamps just to be able to see (and experience) the hot restrike. Unfortunately, it never happened to me except in the gym at school.
If you did not dare to play with the switch when no teacher was in sight. It was really fun with the 250 watts mercs in that meanwhile demolished gym...
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Oh, I had plenty of occasions to see the MH in the gymnasium at school light up. What I was referring to is public spaces where you normally don't have access to the switches such as big stores or shopping malls.
I remember one year the gym teacher had warmup exercise stations around the gym. She didn't think about it and put the jumping jack station near the light switches (an 8-gang series of toggle switches). One student did the inevitable, but only turned of a couple of switches.
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I remember kicking a volleyball in the air in elementary school and it knocked the lights switches for out half of the gym. Needless to say the teacher wasn't amused.
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In my primary school there was a plastic sun roof above the center space of the building, and Mercury lanterns (i think 125W) installed on the walls lighting the area. They were controlled by a switch that we could access
We as small kids would switch it and nothing happens....
The initial light of the Mercury lamp, inside a big white lantern, under sunlight coming through the roof, was impossible to see.... And we did not have the patience, or the thought, to stay and watch it warm up... This switch was a mystery to us. Only thing we knew the switch was doing, is make a loud "click!" sound come from the electrical panel installed nearby, every time it is pressed or released
But we kept trying hard, even checking combinations of it with switches of other lighting around (that was Fluorescent). One day i came to try it out when the Mercury lights were on and warmed up, still under sunlight, so possible to see that they are on if looking at them. Switched it and they came off. Switch back and nothing happens.....
As 6 year old kid i knew nothing about HID warming up and restriking. What i knew is, this switch only ever switch the light off. There must be another one that only the teachers know, that switch them on.... ^_^
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-When in the housewares section of a store, you look at the stainless steel kitchen mixing bowls to see if one would make an appropriate reflector for a homemade fixture. In fact, I did that today !
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-When in the housewares section of a store, you look at the stainless steel kitchen mixing bowls to see if one would make an appropriate reflector for a homemade fixture. In fact, I did that today !
Wow... I am exactly the same... ;D
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-When determining the size of your collection by its volume is easier than counting the lamps individually.
-When you instinctively count the number of dead lamps in a store.
-When you instinctively check the lamp etch/base stamping/filament to make sure it isn't a lamp with a lower than mains potential rating.
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I have a few more.
When you cringe at someone saying "Mercury vapor light bulb" instead of "Mercury vapor lamp".
When you get upset over finding a vintage lamp/ballast/starter but it doesn't work.
When you cringe at the idea of people using corn cob LEDs in good ok street lights.
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Another one:
You get really excited to see the mailman is struggling to take a heavy small package to the door (you, of course, know it's that new MH ballast you ordered... ;D)
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I also cringe when I see old looking poles with new M250R2s on them, when the old unistyles would've been replaced when HPSyndrome started. Fortunately, there are a lot of old poles with old lights up. :)