Rommie
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A sad state of affairs, though. I'm old enough to remember when we built stuff to last in this country. Workshop of the world, we were, now look at us
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AngryHorse
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Rich, Coaster junkie!
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Well as recently as 1979, which isn’t THAT long ago, Thorn lighting would have a couple of page’s worth of spares for their fluorescent battens!, end caps, starter switch holders, chokes and capacitors, new bowls and defusers, even little things like the end springs that held the caps on were all available to order from the spares depot in Spennymoor! How times have changed!
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Current: UK 230V, 50Hz Power provider: e.on energy Street lighting in our town: Philips UniStreet LED (gen 1) Longest serving LED in service at home, (hour count): Energetic mini clear globe: 56,654 hrs @ 14/9/24
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joseph_125
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Yeah, I remember not too long ago, you were able to go to Home Depot and the like and pick up parts for most of the common fluorescent fixtures they sold. Stuff like ballasts, various styles of lampholders, replacement troffer lenses, replacement wraparound lenses.
They cleared out a lot of those parts in order to make room for LED. It's a shame though they don't design stuff to last and to be repairable as I was able to completely rebuild the 1958 fluorescent fixture I have with original T12 gear and parts but try doing that with a modern LED fixture, much less 65 years later.
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AngryHorse
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Rich, Coaster junkie!
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One of the saddest losses for me in the lighting industry was the closure of Thorns mighty Melton road works in 2007 and the spares depot in Spennymoor Thorn would ship anything to whoever wholesale dealt with them, every single spare you could think of from bowls for street lanterns to full lanterns themselves along with all their gear components and lamp holders, as long as you found a wholesaler that dealt with Spennymoor, Spennymoor would send it to you, whether you were an electrician, lighting engineer or cash sale domestic user/enthusiast! Granted it would usually take about 3 weeks (as the wholesaler had to have an order over £1000), but Thorn lighting never once failed me or told me I couldn’t have one of them! Everything I have with Thorns name on came thanks to the massive team at Spennymoor! The loss of the Melton Road works was such a sad sad loss to Britain and its lighting industry!
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« Last Edit: May 03, 2023, 03:19:12 PM by AngryHorse »
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Current: UK 230V, 50Hz Power provider: e.on energy Street lighting in our town: Philips UniStreet LED (gen 1) Longest serving LED in service at home, (hour count): Energetic mini clear globe: 56,654 hrs @ 14/9/24
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Rommie
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I thought Spennymoor was still going..? Our Leopard 2D fixtures say on the label they come from there and they're very recent (2019 or so I think)
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AngryHorse
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Rich, Coaster junkie!
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I wasn’t sure on Spennymoor?, although I do know it was cleared out of all its street lighting stock when they stopped making it all, from what I’ve heard you can’t even get HID control gear from it now?, could be wrong though?
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Current: UK 230V, 50Hz Power provider: e.on energy Street lighting in our town: Philips UniStreet LED (gen 1) Longest serving LED in service at home, (hour count): Energetic mini clear globe: 56,654 hrs @ 14/9/24
Welcome to OBLIVION
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Rommie
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I just checked our 28W 2D, it was made week 37 of 2019, the 16W one is older though, 2012.
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AngryHorse
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Rich, Coaster junkie!
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Yeah it does indeed look like the factory is still in operation, but more on the manufacturing side than spares today, or maybe Thorn spares still exists albeit for LED today?
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Current: UK 230V, 50Hz Power provider: e.on energy Street lighting in our town: Philips UniStreet LED (gen 1) Longest serving LED in service at home, (hour count): Energetic mini clear globe: 56,654 hrs @ 14/9/24
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joseph_125
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Over here most of the luminaire manufacturers are still around but have largely re-tooled their lines for LED instead of fluorescent. Some still list fluorescent luminaires so they're probably still made on a special order basis.
Unfortunately, none of the components are still made here. Gear is typically imported from Mexico or China while the lamps vary. Domestic production of lamps seemed to have ended when Sylvania shut the their operations in Drummondville, QC back in 2018.
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HomeBrewLamps
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Can't see why they would. These bans, as I understand it, are aimed at the commercial sector rather than private individuals. Willing to be proven wrong though, if anyone has any definitive evidence..?
FBI... OPEN UP!
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~Owen
Scavenger, Urban Explorer, Lighting Enthusiast and Creator of homebrewlamps
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joseph_125
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The Federal Bulb Inspectors are here.
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Rommie
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The FBI doesn't have any jurisdiction here
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Robotjulep
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HID lighting is the best!!!
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I collect: Light bulbs, fixtures, and gear, Electric motors (Preferably AC induction motors), Computers, and Stereo equipment.
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WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
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Japan banned mercury vapor lamps in 2020, but I know that some manufacturers like Panasonic are set to discontinue all metal halide and high pressure sodium lamps by 2024.
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
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Robotjulep
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HID lighting is the best!!!
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LED is propaganda, scam, and false-advertising. Who cares about being eco-friendly if you have good power plants. HID ran on coal. LED still runs on coal. I don't see much of a difference here. But LED cheaply made crap that is forcing a new "trend" of light fixtures that look nothing like stuff that had "replaceable" bulbs. "Instead you never have to replace it because LED lasts long." Pretty soon changing a lightbulb from a socket is not going to exist anymore due to permanent LED fixtures and most people will have to hire a person to do that. I think the older lamps were for the smarter generation who knew how to repair things, but LED is making people stupid. Before 2014, laptops used to have replaceable CPUs. Now the CPU is permanently soldered onto the PCB. I see were technology is going. I am set for life with CFL lighting and I am going to continue to go to Lowes to grab their recycled lamps and repair them. I have probably 100 CFL lamps all from the recycle and I think that's more "Eco Friendly" than LED. I am not spending a dime on LED at all. CFLs are "free" . Conventional lighting is far superior to LED and it will always be.
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I collect: Light bulbs, fixtures, and gear, Electric motors (Preferably AC induction motors), Computers, and Stereo equipment.
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