but life might not be as long if it is operated in this position for a prolonged period of time.

You may find an effect that may impact lamp life in virtually any position, be it the melted salts pooling where are two seals with voltage across them with probe down, socket cement weakening by heat when base up, upper arctube wall exposed to higher heat when horizontal, etc.
Also some effects may not be shortening the lifetime per se, but leading to a more likely violent EOL.

Unless the given position is not allowed by the lamp rating, you do not know which one is the most limiting one, as each effect will be suppressed to some extend by the exact lamp design.

Operating the lamp in positions not formally allowed means also an unknown (to you) risk, you will never know what was are all the reasons behind.

And by the way I wouldn't even be surprised if even the manufacturer would not know how it will perform. The point is, when (assume a hypothetical example) some standard lamp format is specified for horizontal only, the manufacturer designing a product targeting that standard specs, will make sure it performs well when used horizontally as that particular standard spec mandates. But what would be his motivation to spend high $$$ in evaluating that design for vertical burning (reliability tests are the most expensive ones, as it needs a lot of pieces for long time test), when practically no one will be using it that way? So he simply won't have any data for that particular product vertical burning position...

Also UK houses are split up on a 3 phase supply, in theory they can drop the breaker in the substation, however they can’t isolate just YOUR house, they would turn several other houses off too that were completely innocent of any non bill payment! 

Hello fellow LG Members, I am now actively looking for employment in a position related to lighting design or lighting tech.

My dream jobs would be either doing interior lighting design solutions for homes and businesses, or lighting design for vehicles. I would assist with product selection to provide a comfortable, aesthetic, and cost-effective lighting solution for homes and offices.

Many modern car manufacturers such as BMW and Subaru have beautiful interior ambient lighting. Many car manufacturers such as BMW and Porsche engineer their own LED  headlight housings. I would love to be a part of lighting design to create attractive and unique vehicle interiors and/or high performance and safe headlights.

I’m reaching out to local companies that specialize in fixture design and architectural lighting. I’m fortunate that BMW is local to me. Please let me know if you have any suggestions and guidance for my outreach. I’m ready to pursue my passion and do something I love 

I wonder if there are some other alternative forwarders that can help foreign collectors obtain North American mercury vapor lamps as well. Sometimes, this makes me worried about the possibility of not being able to obtain mercury vapor lamps from Europe since I like to collect fluorescent and HID lamps from around the world.

String of LM Ovalites that survived into the 2010s. Unfortunately they're gone now or I'd be looking into getting a picture of them. This was how a lot of old MV era clamshells were installed on roadways here back in the day.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6952251,-79.5726249,3a,49.5y,246.34h,100.34t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6xC4pb2vGikw3b6htCHgqg!2e0!5s20110901T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

While browsing the web for some Japanese market light fixtures to consider adding to my collection, I have noticed that a good number of light fixtures intended for general lighting often use E17 intermediate base incandescent lamps, CFL lamps, and LED lamps. Why is this so whereas in North America, we sometimes use E17 intermediate base incandescent, CFL, and LED lamps for ceiling fans?

I have 4 180W SRM's but sending them transatlantic is a pain in the behind. Not sure if it is worth the risk tbh.

If the lamp is rated for Universal burning, it should be relatively safe to run base down, but life might not be as long if it is operated in this position for a prolonged period of time.

Difficult to do here, as most of our power feeds to individual residential properties is underground, unless it's a very rural area. No way to do it without access to the premises, unless you dig up the road and try and disconnect a live cable 

They'd be most likely to get a warrant to force entry.

To be fair, if it got to that point even a internally located meter (like in some older houses pre ~1950s here) would be an issue since as long as your house is connected to the grid, there's bound to be some means to shut off power to your house, either at the power pole, or at the pad mount transformer.

The way to circumvent this would be to install a off grid power system, either ironically wind/solar or just a onsite gas powered generator.

Over here I believe they can only shut off your power if you don't pay the bill, and only during the warmer months. During the colder months, instead of shutting your power completely, they'll put a limiter on your power meter that only gives you limited power, typically 120V 15A. Enough to run the furnace so you won't freeze and some lights but nothing else.