Does anyone know much about a 30w F30 T12 fluorescent tube?
I found a whole bunch of them at an abandoned movie theater but didn't get them because they're green capped Philips Altos.
Some are cool white while others are deluxe cool white.
They appear to have medium bi-pin bases.
They're installed in boxes to highlight movie posters.
Anyway just wondering as I've never seen this size or wattage of tube before, except for maybe appliances like stove panels.

Ahh these things, standard 3 foot tubes. The weirdness activates when these where Rapid start, but for some reason F30T8 was preheat. Still kinda neat to see.

F30 is 3'? Shouldn't they be F36?
Maybe I should grab some of those deluxe whites.

That would be the case if it were a slimline or HO lamp, but with bi-pin lamps the number is based off the wattage. Here is an example of a F36T12 lamp.

Yeah that's right because of the F20 and F40 bi-pins.
These caught me off guard because I've never dealt with 3' T12s before.
They're kind of interesting to me.

They definitely seem less common than their 2-foot counterparts, and ever less common compared to their 4-foot counterparts.

The Salina alto lamps are okay for general use, just don't stick them in the cold but im sure thats no issue in florida. I would get a few of both colors and sneak around for any more lamps.

Max this abandoned movie theater is a complete goldmine for lamps and fixtures!
I've already bought back some MV and there's plenty more to go!
I can only imagine what would happen if HomeBrewLamps had access to this place
He's always searching some abandoned building, now it's my turn to join in on the fun.
I'm getting to many bad habits from this site

I wish I had abandoned building to explore, the only issue is, there is no real abandon buildings where I live (except for in the real seedy parts of town), as most of them get bought up, torn down and replaced with apartments that cost too much for most people to live in.

  You just described South Florida my friend.
This abandoned theater is in a good area and will eventually be replaced with office buildings, as if Plantation needs anymore of those.

Home Depot used to sell striplights for these and I believe some undercabinet lights used F30T12 lamps. There's also a F25T8 which is the energy saving T8 version of the F30T12 which requires a T8 ballast to run.

Over here the tread for old buildings is for them to become overpriced apartments that are bought up by investors who then proceed to rent them back at inflated prices. So not many abandoned buildings worth exploring unless you go to a seedy area or out of the city.

F30T12s are much less common than F40T12s or F20T12s, but I wouldn't call them rare. You can get them at the big box home centers. They were mostly used in single-lamp striplights or under-cabinet lights.

Fun fact: there were 25W "energy saver" versions of the F30T12, just like the 34W version of the F40T12. They striate the same way when cold, too. I have a couple somewhere.

My bathrooms used to have F30T12 strips inside some recessed fluorescent light boxes. They had late 70s Advance ballasts that were rapid start and the recessed light boxes had panels that would slide open for relamping. They were ripped out and replaced with can lights when the house got renovated but I kept the tubes for my collection, mostly Philips tubes.

Fun fact: there were 25W "energy saver" versions of the F30T12,

Interesting.. I've seen 25w T8 3-footers, but never a T12,

Dont let altos scare u esp on shorter lamps.   Philips had some bad runs in manufacturing underdosing lamps esp on 6 and 8 footers and on T8s.   Other than that there great decent lamps.   My mom still got 34 watt altos running under the house.