It appears to be happening to the lowest wattage HIDs because the same lighting seller site i bought from lists all their 35 watt HPS lamps as "not available". So far metal halide seems to be in stock for now. Their lower mercury vapour offerings are listed as "not available" or "while supply last"

Interesting update,

I stumbled across a listing for a lot of 10 advance NPF integrated ignitor ballasts for 35 watt HPS lamps, after already paying for my lot of 3 advance HPF ballasts with normal ignitor and cap (free ship). Totalling just slightly over 100 US for 13 ballasts. I'm far over budget but Id be kicking myself if I passed the case of 10 up, even if they are NPF and built in ignitor type.

Stay tuned on my gallery for those.

Unfortunately the seller had 2 lots of 10 and the first one was bought by someone else before me.

The lot of 3 has free ship because the seller was late in sending me an invoice and almost got me a non payment strike so free ship was offered.

Now is a good time to try to stock up on lamps and ballasts since they will inevitably be discontinued before 2030. By 2030, over 90% of the lighting market share will be LED. The US government will eventually outlaw HID lamps and ballasts as well as all fluorescent and neon lamps and their ballasts too all in favor of LED.

Oh it'll be before 2030, at this point, the governments are just sitting and watching as the lighting companies themselves abandon the old goods in favour of their new products. Seems the governments just gave them a push on the swing to start them off and now they can swing themselves further on their own.

UNREAL THAT THEY DISCONTINUE HID BALLASTS! WTF! Now this is JUST to lure people into LED. Such a DISGRACE!!!!!!!!!!!

This is just killing me now that LED is officially taking over now! UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

BTW, are they still making flourescent ballasts?

That had been done with lots of fraud as well - The optical safety handling, the lamp life ratings. and even the energy saving numbers

Have their also been manufacturers that discontinued their ENTIRE line of HID bulbs in favor of LED?

Yes, they did here!, one of the largest lamp factories in the UK, Thorn Lightings Melton Road plant in Leicester, closed in 2007 with the loss of all UK made HID, HPS/LPS/MV/MH, halogen, fluorescent, photo lamps, xenon, neon.......etc
Even the labs that developed iconic lamps like the linear SLI/H went with it!

Although this was more in favour of over seas manufacturing than LED, but Thorn Lighting today is unrecognisable to what it was in the 80s, nearly all Thorn products are bought in today, a sad decline to the once mighty and respectable name that was British lightning!

As far as total bans go I don’t think they’re are any right now but, if California is going to ban new gas/diesel vehicles then I’m sure a ban on Anything non LED is in the pipeline.

As far as total bans go I don’t think they’re are any right now but, if California is going to ban new gas/diesel vehicles then I’m sure a ban on Anything non LED is in the pipeline.

I find it hilarious that the one state that is doing constant blackouts and telling people to shut off their air conditioning in extreme heat due to energy shortages thinks electric cars won't be a problem there.

The US government will eventually outlaw HID lamps and ballasts as well as all fluorescent and neon lamps and their ballasts

Honestly I doubt they will, and if they do it'd be just "the manufacture and import of...". More likely companies will simply discontinue them before any bans are "needed".

BTW, are they still making flourescent ballasts?

Yes, electronic ballasts are still made for T5, T8, and T12 (plus various PL/etc) lamps.

Yes, electronic ballasts are still made for T5, T8, and T12 (plus various PL/etc) lamps.

Might as well to get those before they get discontinued.

I wonder if/when we'll see an official word from the ballasts manufacturers about this. Even though the market is shrinking it seems like randomly pulling the plug on making HID ballasts is still going to affect some places that still have large amounts of HID lighting in use.

A side note, anyone know if any magnetic fluorescent ballasts are still made. I'd imagine most for larger lamps have been either banned or replaced with a electronic version but anyone know if they're still making them for smaller (2ft and under) lamps as well as the more niche sizes.

I find it hilarious that the one state that is doing constant blackouts and telling people to shut off their air conditioning in extreme heat due to energy shortages thinks electric cars won't be a problem there.

Agreed, if anything they need to strengthen their electric grid to better take the load. Your typical electric car charger requires a 30-50A 240v circuit to run. Over here they're pushing for minimum 200A services and rough ins to garages in new homes for electric vehicles. I guess a side benefit from that is you have a 240v circuit in the garage now that could also be used for welders, power tools. Most older garages here only have a single 15 or 20A circuit shared with the lighting.

And yeah I wouldn't be surprised if California banned the sales of anything non-LED in the near future.

They're probably are gonna do that anyway.

Besides, I'm not worried about it, since I live in Texas.

Besides, I'm not worried about it, since I live in Texas.

problem is some of that "California crap" can spread to the rest of the country...

Wow......just wow. Do you guys remember the 1980’s and 1990’s (I was born in 82 so that’s as far as I go back), as a child I could walk in to the hardware store or out into the street on a rainy night under a buzzing mercury lamp, or into a Sears store at the mall and they had high pressure sodium mercury vapor up and running on a display board and boxes of them right there I’d drool over....bulbs they’d let me open and look inside at the arc tubes and marvel the design.  That’s all there was...REAL....IN PERSON...OLDSCHOOL… Wish I could go back even though we would not be connected with the Internet at least the lighting was actually present.       Never saw this coming. Hold onto your collectibles. The world will soon be all white and sterile! Moment of silence and SOX tribute for Advance and Venture.