When I repair rapid start ballast or rewire old
preheat HPF ballast. first thing first I go ahead replace
capacitor and extend the leads to remote mounted the capacitors.  that way older ballast can stay in service longer. and easier to replace them for future generations
while I am gone.  so if some one finds old lights and make it easy to replace parts. it like trying to keep a model T running in 2019 as most of those cars are
coming on over 100 years old to keep them running.

I'm 40 and I've got an interest in lighting since I was 15!
For the moment I've partially lose some interest in modern lighting because I don't see many changes in technologies and in the way people use lighting.

I remember how excited I was in 2000-2003, when I started to use and to see the first white led in 5mm then Luxeon formats. I was the first time people see caves and abandoned mines in a white "daylight" colour.

I live in Montréal, Canada, and the city has been converting HPS streetlights to LED: their very nice 3000K reminds me incandescent lighting. It really gives some "village" ambiance to the city, and I'm happy to experience that.

Yeah LED lighting replacing the older reliable lighting in most cases... that is definitely depressing. But no matter
what, old lighting will always still be out there. I will never, ever lose interest in lighting unless the government
or whatever, makes it mandatory for us to replace all older forms of lighting with LED, with the threat of arrest if
we don't follow through. In other words, unless we get forced to replace all of our lighting to LED, my passion
for lighting literally can't end. I've been a *vintage* lighting enthusiast since I was 3 years old.
Motorcycles = my other passion. Same situation. I'm not a fan of electric motorcycles... and although electric bikes
haven't taken over compared to LED's, there is still that chance that electric motorcycles will take over. My passion for
motorcycles will also never die, unless combustion engines get banned in favor of electric vehicles.

With the amount of power states (all across the world) are slowly and steadily taking and accumulating, it is very plausible that they are paving their way to freely walk into your kid's home and tell him what to do (not your home because it will take a while before it reaches that point)

I'm too far down the rabbit hole to lose interest now!

LOL I'm in the same boat as Owen. I've got too much stuff to give up collecting now. If I gave up my lighting hobby I wouldn't have very much of a life at all other than work lol.

Although I've been slacking significantly in terms of collecting, I'm also far down that rabbit hole as well.

LOL I'm in the same boat as Owen. I've got too much stuff to give up collecting now. If I gave up my lighting hobby I wouldn't have very much of a life at all other than work lol.

Thought this old topic could do with reviving. We too are disheartened and disappointed in the way the world is going with regard to LED's, particularly for street lighting. We still have a certain amount of choice when it comes to what we use at home, even if we do have to resort to places like eBay to get lamps, but outside that door we have to accept whatever is forced upon us  

Both of us here have the lighting bug big time, so no way would we (or could we) ever give up  

Thought this old topic could do with reviving. We too are disheartened and disappointed in the way the world is going with regard to LED's, particularly for street lighting. We still have a certain amount of choice when it comes to what we use at home, even if we do have to resort to places like eBay to get lamps, but outside that door we have to accept whatever is forced upon us  

Both of us here have the lighting bug big time, so no way would we (or could we) ever give up  

Thought this old topic could do with reviving. We too are disheartened and disappointed in the way the world is going with regard to LED's, particularly for street lighting. We still have a certain amount of choice when it comes to what we use at home, even if we do have to resort to places like eBay to get lamps, but outside that door we have to accept whatever is forced upon us  

Both of us here have the lighting bug big time, so no way would we (or could we) ever give up  

I'm confused as to how you quoted Mike yet I cannot find my comment on this thread nor his.... I don't recall deleting my responses ever... 

Something seems glitched.

Literally just less than 3 hours ago at work, as I was working I noticed a fixture turned on at the very front of the factory, in an
area used as storage, that hasn't been infected with LED tubes. That fixtures stays off typically, so the installers didn't touch it.
That light, next to the LED ones, was noticeably warmer (of course) and BRIGHTER. A lot of light was gone when that thing was switched off.
... but that being said, 100% of the 4, 6, and 8 lamp T8 fluorescent high bays, now have LED tubes in them.
That, and they're replacing all the old machines in that factory. The old machines still have over head fluorescent fixtures. The new
machines have fluorescent fixtures with the LED tubes in them, so it's only a matter of time. Complete bull.

I'm confused as to how you quoted Mike yet I cannot find my comment on this thread nor his.... I don't recall deleting my responses ever... 

Something seems glitched.

I can see both yours and his comments ok.

I'm too far down the rabbit hole to lose interest now!

I'm exactly the same.!! 

Same here but I haven't been adding much to the collection lately. Main reason is that I haven't really found anything worth buying for the past while and it seems like most stuff that shows up at the Restore are modern conventional lighting or even LEDs. Not much vintage lighting stuff anymore.

Also been focusing my efforts towards getting pictures of the remaining vintage lighting installations left in the city before all the places with cool lighting get retrofitted, renovated, or even demolished. There's still a good number of places around the city that still have some neat looking vintage lighting in used.