Yeah, a metal shield might protect you. A new 21st century use for medieval technology. 

@Ash I have seen pictures of those! They are super cool. I think that with modern materials (maybe using some sort of high temp FRP instead of ceramic) the fuse pin could be made practical, but it's way too late now. I would love to see this kind of design reincarnated but we have too many plug designs already, so whatever.

Interesting wattage comparison of different homes around the world, I didn't realize that modern 200A homes were so much more power hungry than others around the world. Also, homes in Israel have three phase? Man, that must be nice!

The problem is not only the fuse tube material

Plugs and sockets are designed to last for lots of plug/unplug cycles. The plug pins are fixed in the plug by having a large interlocking shape. No crimping

In any fuse of a more or less typical construction with crimped caps, the caps will be getting loose and coming off if it is taken in/out of the holder so many times



New houses and flats are now getting mostly as standard 3x25A, with the main cable of 10mm2 ready for 3x40A upgrade

Single phase connections for 1x25A and 1x40A are still available to order, but i think the main users for them nowadays are traffic lights, amenities in public spaces (like a ticket machine in a bus stop), remote metering/networking equipment clusters etc, not houses

In the 90s you would usually get 1x40A from the contractor in a new house, but the conductors for 2 other phases are already there for 3x40A. So a main breaker & busbar swap in your board, meter swap in the meter cabinet, and you have 3 phases

Before that in private houses you could get 3 phases at least as far back as 70s, in flats it was rarely more than 1x25

In villages often the private small farm was feeding from the house (with an underground or an overhead), so people were geting 3x25, 3x40 or more for having it in the ranch, the house just benefited from it on the way. Nowadays many of those village farms are getting upgraded with 3x100A and higher connections to support grid-tied solar installations on the farm buildings, so either freeing up the old service connection completely for the house use, or backfeeding through it from the farm to the house (with the old service drop to the house removed)

Yeah, that's why it is best to just either go and pick it up or find them locally.

Regarding lamp shipping, yeahh I've almost given up on it I've had so many mishaps... I've lost 2 Duro-Test Power Twists, among several other lamps. Though small lamps are generally pretty safe to ship. And large lamps if they're packed well. I had an F15T8 being shipped in between the very heavy base of a desklamp and the box, when it got here the tube was very broken and the end was flattened

Oh nice! That probably was never a very common ballast...

@jcs97 Gotta say I'm especially intrigued by that ancient looking high bay on the left middle shelf. I was thinking it was an early Mercury HID or even Medium pressure mercury fixture.

https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=4384&pos=115&pid=156403

That's ADVANCE RS-3P40-TP 3 Lamp Rapid start ballast.

I don’t think the sales were that/i] bad, at least around here. I mean, the manufacturers are still selling the stuff that isn’t banned. And I certainly don’t imagine the sale of the triphosphor F40T12s was too bad in 2012 when they were banned. I have also heard that the lighting brands have been lobbying the government to remove all of the bans so they can start selling incandescent light bulbs again. Not sure if that’s true or not, just stating what I have been told.

I am hoping they at least bring back standard reflector and A19 incandescents and /741 F40T12 fluorescents. I don’t mind if they are imported as long as they exist. Even if they were only available for a few years, it would give enthusiasts another chance to stockpile them, which I didn’t get a chance to do before they were banned.

I do also really hope the stinking mercury doesn’t become the reason the fluorescents are banned. I could actually see that being the case. I wonder if it’s possible they will only outlaw fluorescents for commercial buyers or give residential buyers extended time? I don’t know if that’s something that could be done.

I prefer Bands like Twenty one Pilots and Cage the Elephant now though

 Especially with all of the anti mercury legislation going on worldwide lately .