This series capacitor is not practical as lamp current is low frequency (~150Hz) compared to half bridge PC power supply and the capacitance has to be rather high. And is actually not necessary, as the midpoint of electrolytics serves exactly the necessary purpose, with infinite impedance at DC.

In electronic ballasts, there is typically a sense resistor in the source of lower MOSFET(s) of half-bridge/bridge, so ballast controller can see lamp current in both half-periods, and regulate/balance it.

Also, in a classic forward-type push-pull PC supply, power transformer does not serve energy storage function and so has no air gap, and has large inductance, so can saturate easily. Energy is stored in the separate powder cored inductor after rectifier diodes. In HID ballast, the inductor serves the energy storage purpose, is air gapped, and will not saturate, as it has to sustain low frequency component of lamp current.

I did need to turn on the heat... unfortunately. I'm financially prepared, but I'm probably gonna get one heck of an electric bill. lol
... two nights on the way this week, of -10 degree actual air temperatures. That's only 5 degrees higher than the lowest I've
ever witnessed back in 2013, which was -15 degrees. I wonder if my windows will bring clouds into my apartment after I take a shower?
That's what happened in my little studio apartment back then... 

 Sounds like you need to turn the heat back on !

  @wide-lite 1000, this is so true. We're in serious trouble. It's super cold in my apartment right now by the way, since I had my heater off.
Turned on all my F30T12's and F25T12's... all of them were extremely dim with slight fluttering in the F30T12's, and tons of striations going crazy
in the F25T12's. It did not take long, at all, for this apartment to get cold.

 Ya' know you're in trouble when temps in the 20's are considered a warming trend !

I haven’t noticed that, but I did find a 6 way floor lamp from 2020 and all four bulbs were Satco incandescents which I thought was odd because I don’t know anyone that sells that brand here.

Try looking at the AEL website on the wayback machine, that may help.

I'm looking for an AEL 125 socket positioning chart, but I can't find one. Does anyone have one I could look at so I can see what bulb shape and socket position my AEL 125 is supposed to use?

It is hard to beat the cheapest LED lamps from Ebay of the mid 2010s off the top of the list....

I had a friend who was all into buying that sort of stuff just for entertainment. (Had, he was an old guy and not too healthy, and passed away since)

When the lamps died (with the series string of LEDs going open circuit, which leads to electrolytic cap charging to full line voltage, going past its voltage rating and blowing up with smoke), we would get out the soldering iron and blob some solder over the dead LED to keep the lamp going for another couple days. (Soldering iron also straight from China, ungrounded plug, makes the LEDs on the PCB light up as you are soldering them. Sitting in Lotus position in the plastic chair helped reduce risk of electric shock)



Excluding them, it is still hard to beat many other LED lamps off the top of the list. I'll summarize this with a quote from a salesperson of Z&S, an importer of cheap lamps. (Context : Was his answer when i asked why a LED panel light they sell does not have a lifetime hour rating on the box, but only some ridiculous number in years with small print)

"Our LED lamps are the highest quality, such that their lifetime is measured in years and not in hours"



Of non LED lamps, i'd say most 4-6-8W T5's sold in stores nowadays, and a few 15W and 18W T8's

They have virtually no emitter on one or both cathodes. They appear to be either slightly rectifying, or even "rectifying" on both electrodes (ie. formally not rectifying, but running with abnormal crest factor) from the first start. They may start flashing like EOL randomly while running. They are flashing a lot when starting

Connecting such lamp with a shorted starter reveals that the electrode filaments may be different from each other or even shorted - One lights, one doesn't or they are of different brightness by a few times



Of older lamps, it's a tie between...

CFLs of the early 00's which keep burning up the circuit (scorching hot, no light, no cathode glow) many days or weeks after they EOL'd. Ballast case plastic crushes to dust in hand when trying to remove the lamp from the socket

Festoon incandescent lamps which paint coat goes up in smoke after the lamp heats up (not EOL)

Incandescent lamps with the wires in the cap twisted (short circuit) from the factory

Incandescent lamps which cement is loose from the factory (during screwing the lamp into the socket)

Circlines that work normally once, have no vacuum (or poisoned ?) when switched on 2nd time next day. Replace with new one and same thing happens again

Starters stuck new from the factory

Starters which bimetal presses the glow lamp wall from inside and pops it open after a few uses

Starters which bimetal is broken and just lays loose inside the lamp. Those catch fire when put into use

SON-T lamp with E40 base which doesn't go into most E40 sockets (it's not E39 either, it's something incorrectly shaped not compatible with any of them)

1. Suralux 10w tube and 15w tube. On the 10w tube they forgot to dip the electrodes in emission coating, so it doesn't start on electronic. On the 15w tube, they made it the wrong size (F14T8 instead of F15T8) and they got the phosphor color to be 5000k though it's labelled 6500k.

2. Madhab neon flicker flame lamp. I have no issue with the glass part of the lamp, it's the base. Its made of cheap bright flashy plastic, and the B22 pins are plastic too. The B22 contacts are just screws. It just looks too hideous. A metal B22 base with ceramic filling would look 10 times better.

3. Philips 15w blue glazed incandescent. Blue glaze is a very dim color, not suitable for a low wattage like 15w. Hence, the lamp is half as bright as a small led, and consumes 15w. The other 15w incandescents like green, yellow and red are brighter than the blue one. I don't understand why they didn't use translucent blue lacquer instead of blue glaze.

4. Mysore 160w SBMV. They used the design from philips, who made a flawed design. They placed the starting electrode too close to the main electrode, which meant mercury would short the electrodes resulting in the lamp shutting off after 10 secs. The lamp had to be run at a 45 angle to even function.

These are just non-LED lamps. I have had many brand new led lamps just burn out minutes after they were turned on. Like this led bulb and this led strip.


Worst fixture I made is putting 6x 18w led spotlights of different colors in a 250w HID fixture. The hideous fixture is here.
There was also an idol frame that had leds on it, but it's power supply was horrendous and dangerous.