In a cold region, a fluorescent fixture with a heater wire wrapped around the tube, to warm it up doing the startup. But it was done in a crude manner, where it was all manual, even the tube was started with a switch instead of a normal starter.


I also saw an HPS lamp used indoors without any protection. The 250w bare bulb was hanging at head height without any cover.

I have personally seen incandescent and CFL bulbs above diffuser panels in suspended ceiling setups (even more bizarre than a fluorescent shoplight mounted above diffusers mimicking a fluorescent troffer), mercury vapor recessed can lights inside a home, and a restaurant using real antique 100 year old radial wave streetlights (now repurposed as overhead table lighting).

Let's hear your intakes!

If anyone has a cooper Rma hood I could buy, let me know I just bought a Rma nema head and I really could use the shade. It is a 100 watt metal halide if that makes a difference.

I wish I could. The one on the bottom left that's pointed outwards kind of looks like one of those work floodlights, although I think it's the same kind as the ones next to it. I also can't tell the size of the socket. The ones on the left middle row and the center right bottom row are likely from the 1940s or 50s, and probably used high wattage (100W+) incandescent bulbs. My family has some similar fixtures from around the same time or a little older that I'm pretty sure had 300W or 500W bulbs.

I recently salvaged a mercury vapor security light from a demolition site that I plan to hold on to. I would post photos, but it's saying my files are too large. This is one of those typical outdoor home fixtures that was made for decades. I'm guessing it was made in the 1960s or 70s, but it could be newer. There's no wiring diagram or any paper label that has anything that looks like a date; however, there is what looks like a serial number on a piece of plastic housing between the ballast and the socket. The number is 058-85-40066, with the number "4" printed below. I've heard you can sometimes identify the manufacture date from this. I'm also guessing the "93 T3" elsewhere on the ballast means it's a T3 ballast. The writing on the bulb is blurry, but I was able to make out that it is a Philips 175W H35KC /dx bulb. Is there a way to ID the manufacture date of the bulb from any of this?

I think in Google it's not possible, but in Microsoft Sharepoint this certainly works rather well.  Anyone with an MS user account who is given permission by the author can edit the file, and multiple users can all work in real time on the same file, their changes being displayed live.

If you ping me a msg with your email address I will share a copy of what I have so far.

My local Blue Roof still had primarily GE(Savant) stuff, but has had an increasing number of Cree(Feit) and Utilitech products. Haven’t seen anything go on clearance.

I have seen GE glass LED bulbs turning an eerie dim purplish color at Lowe’s back in late 2019/early 2020. I uploaded a pic of some back then.

Night lights here have switched from Enbrighten/GE to Utilitech as well

The HIDs and plug-in CFLs at my store at under the Sylvania brand.