Fellas, please give me some ideas of what you all think a perfect lighting set up is out in the countryside  while I share mine!

A perfect lighting set up in the countryside is when you have almost all of your lights as fluorescent, halogen, incandescent, and HID run primarily on magnetic ballasts (some electronic okay but NO LEDS). Perfect example of what gives me the good chills is when a barn has a 175w Regent Mercury Vapor area light that has a hum to it's magnetic ballast and you watch the baby start up almost every single evening. Now your house: your house inside is illuminated with mostly incandescent that have a dimmer, and a T12 fluorescent fixture in the kitchen of course with a magnetic ballast as well , alongside with some CFL bulbs that are rapid/programmed start. Think of the garage illuminated with mainly F96T12 strip lights 2 lamp, and some F40T12s too sometimes 1 lamp fixtures with some being daylight bulbs too (feeling nostalgic yet?). Imagine sometimes the garage door being open and all those beautiful old school T12 bulbs blasting through the yard at night and you really can tell they are fluorescent . On top of that of course your shop has a yard light that blasts through the night too with a 175w NEMA head now okay, probably a deluxe bulb. Your house's exterior rather has a 175w Regent or NEMA head that is above the car garage door, or is on a pole illuminating the walkway. Tags:


  :'-)

Well, I don't think one could add many more things to this ; you pretty much nailed it (although some people would like SOX or SON outdoors).

I have a similar setup to what you describe, although not as elaborate (no garage). However, I modernized it slightly by using F18T8 lamps in the kitchen (with chokes + starters) and CMH in the living room (some on magnetic gear, one on electronic).

I would actually do SON as well outdoors. Though I have heard that SON lamps don't really last long, and RARELY do they ever last 70 years.

Fellas, please give me some ideas of what you all think a perfect lighting set up is out in the countryside  while I share mine!

And what about us girls, then..? 

To answer your question, SOX all the way, of course   

Sorry, I meant to say that Low Pressure Sodium lamps dont last long. I get confused SOX, and SON, pretty please all lighting fans reading my comments PLEASE forgive my embarrassing self

My brain is horrible. I am sorry, High Pressure Sodium lamps last forever like a Mercury Vapor lamp however, Low Pressure Sodium Lamps (SOX) don't last very long, SON all the way baby!!!!!

Oh I don't know about that, we had a 35W SOX given to us as well worn out and ready for scrapping that did another 2 years in our Thorn Beta 5..! At least one member here has reported a SOX lamp lasting 10 years in service, so don't write them off too quickly..! 

Indeed. One of my SOX lamps id dated 23-9-09. It's over 12 years old and still has life in it

I should educate myself on SOX more  . Someone told me they don't last long, but I really don't know if that is true. I actually really really really like the orange light they give off.

The commonly accepted average life expectancy is 18,000 hours, ~3 years dusk to dawn. But plenty last loads longer.

Again, please forgive me for my un-educated self about SOX lamps and writing them off too quickly.

Just education, not ridicule 

No problem, if you hang about here long enough, you'll find that I'm probably the site's most ardent SOX nut 

For the UK countryside I go with 80 watt mercury lamps on Stanton’s 7A swan neck concrete columns, switched by Sangamo’s S251 time clock! 

davidnonledfan, you pretty much described my home lighting setup, though I live in former countryside which is now very much city. If I'm able to move to a rural property with more space, I'd keep the lighting almost the same, but would install many of my collection of streetlights outside on poles or buildings rather than as a display in my garage.

Most of my interior lighting is linear fluorescent, primarily magnetic preheat or rapid start. I have a lot of magnetic PL tube CFLs, program start PAR CFLs, and HID accent lights inside, plus some neon signs, neon flicker flames, halogens and magnetic capsule CFLs as general lighting. Very few incandescent or LED, but a few here & there. Outside are HPS wall packs, a 175w clear MV NEMA gumball and a 100w clear MV yard light, an MV flood and MH wall pack and low voltage halogen & LED landscape lighting. I might have a dark-ish spot where I could install one more HID fixture...

It seems many of us lighting enthusiasts have similar tastes. Unfortunately non-enthusiast spouses, family and roommates sometimes don't seem to have the same appreciation for lights that don't immediately light up at full brightness when the switch is flipped.