@F96T12 DD VHO, now the question is, what kind of 8ft fluorescent fixtures would you want them to be?
Would it be Instant Start Slimline, Rapid Start HO, or Rapid Start VHO? lol

@F96T12 DD VHO, now the question is, what kind of 8ft fluorescent fixtures would you want them to be?
Would it be Instant Start Slimline, Rapid Start HO, or Rapid Start VHO? lol

How about British switch-start (preheat) 8-footers?
Or maybe SRS?

Oh yeah I forgot about those lol
That is true... might as well branch out and try different kinds of ballasts/fixtures
at that point... Preheat 8 footers, SRS 8 footers, Slimline IS, HO RS, and VHO RS. All
with full wattage lamps.

Then there is Switchstart with Electronic starting - Vivatronic, Perfectstart, Pulsestarter....

In my dream home living room, I would have cathedral ceilings with recessed MH lights with concentric ring baffles. Would certainly add that sparkle to dark rainy days, in addition to lighting up the space quite well at night.

Perfectstart

A vintage one of those is deff on my wanted list

I've never heard of a perfect start before. Are those magnetic?

A perfect start ballast is really a preheat choke with a thermal relay to preheat the lamps. The newer ones have electronic starters. They were once more common in Europe, maybe more in Eastern Europe than elsewhere. They are not really available in North America as they typically require 230V mains.

I think bast on what I've seen posted here that Perfectstart was an Israel (and even a brand-name) thing rather than Europe in general.
I'd want the old thermal relay type, not electronic...

I'd will have T12 fixtures in my dream workshop shed and my house. Because they're awesome!   

We've changed our minds, instead of a dream house, we've decided we'd like to live on a canal narrowboat and spend our days touring the 2,000 miles of the UK's canal system

Our specification includes (but isn't exclusive to) - 70ft boat with bow thruster and semi-trad stern, fully kitted out with networking equipment with multiple redundancies for online connection (satellite, mobile broadband), 30ft telescopic mast for amateur radio antennas, Betamarine Beta 50S Super Silent 2.1 litre diesel engine developing 50bhp at 2,800 rpm and a 5kVA AC generator.

We'll add more as we think of things

As for my dream-house
The house itself would be massive (totally overkill for one single old guy .. but hey its a 'dream house' and will never actually happen)
Lighting for almost all rooms within the living space would be fluorescent - T5's in nice slim recessed fixtures, and dimmable too. Exceptions would be the diningroom and bathrooms which would have incandescent.

The garage would be T8 and/or T12 (and deff some 8-footers too!)
The shed/shop would also be a fairly large building (probably divided into a few sections for storage & work)
It'd be T8 and T12, the work section would be a totally random mix of different fluorescents (as it would also be my 'lights playroom'). For power it would not only  have 120v, but also 208, 240, and 277 ... plus 240v @50hz so I could properly run UK fluorescents!

The greenhouse wouldn't really need lights, but it's have a few weatherpacks just for if I needed to go in there at night.

The indoor pool (another separate building, or possibly connected to the greenhouse), might have to go MV for that

Outdoor lighting would be a combination of fluorescent MV & SOX (maybe a couple MH & HPS thrown in for good measure too)
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Daytime everything would be powered by solar & wind, nighttime would be wind and/or generator (obviously whatever systems, they'd have to be pretty hefty stuff!)

As for my dream-house
The house itself would be massive (totally overkill for one single old guy .. but hey its a 'dream house' and will never actually happen)
Lighting for almost all rooms within the living space would be fluorescent - T5's in nice slim recessed fixtures, and dimmable too. Exceptions would be the diningroom and bathrooms which would have incandescent.

The garage would be T8 and/or T12 (and deff some 8-footers too!)
The shed/shop would also be a fairly large building (probably divided into a few sections for storage & work)
It'd be T8 and T12, the work section would be a totally random mix of different fluorescents (as it would also be my 'lights playroom'). For power it would not only  have 120v, but also 208, 240, and 277 ... plus 240v @50hz so I could properly run UK fluorescents!

The greenhouse wouldn't really need lights, but it's have a few weatherpacks just for if I needed to go in there at night.

The indoor pool (another separate building, or possibly connected to the greenhouse), might have to go MV for that

Outdoor lighting would be a combination of fluorescent MV & SOX (maybe a couple MH & HPS thrown in for good measure too)
-------------
Daytime everything would be powered by solar & wind, nighttime would be wind and/or generator (obviously whatever systems, they'd have to be pretty hefty stuff!)

I forgot, I would definitely like a pool in my dream house too    I would like it to be outdoors, with a screen enclosure to keep leaves, animals, insects and anything else out of the water.  I would go with saltwater, because it requires less upkeep than chlorine.  The pool would be lit with four underwater incandescent  (the common water-proof kind seen in neighborhood pools).  Overhead, I would like to light the whole screened in pool enclosure with two 500 watt T3 halogen lamps (on a dimmer).  Next to the pool, I would like a "built in" grill with granite countertops on each side, so that I can cook and fix drinks outdoors.   Next to the patio, I would like a door that leads into the house, to a wooden sauna.  After sitting in the hot steam room, I would run and jump into the cold pool  

  

PerfeKtstart (the original thermal switch version) was designed by Knobel in Switzerland in the 50's

In the 70's (late 60s ?) an Israeli company named Mashnekim (which means : "ballasts") (which many years later became ELTAM Ein Hashofet) built a production line in Israel for essentially the same ballasts. The thermal relay was brought from Knobel, the rest made and assembled here. This was PerfektStart R1

In the late 70's Mashnekim built a production line for other types of Fluorescent ballasts (chokes, SRS, etc), named "u", based on designs of Helvar Finland. Around 1980 the PerfektStart R1 was discontinued and from that point onwards PerfektStart was made in the u format, also with a newer model of thermal relay with Plastic case and internal EMI suppression capacitor, the newer relay too was made by Knobel

Around 1990 the U line was replaced by the B line, overall similar design of the ballast (mostly the coil connections assembly was changed from Helvar-ish to VS-ish). In the B based PerfectStart, the thermal relay was replaced with TN22-based electronic ignitor and the ballast renamed from PerfeKtStart to Perfect Start (as it have nothing to do anymore with the original Knobel ballast). The B based ballasts (magnetic ballast with electronic ignitor) were made from ~1992 up to ~2013 or so. The B line was also used for making a variety of other ballast types

Knobel too made newer versions of the PerfektStart after the R1, including moving towards electronic ignitors at some point. I am not familiar with the Knobel side of things though

I forgot, I would definitely like a pool in my dream house too    I would like it to be outdoors, ...

I'd need indoors, because of winter .lol.
Interesting thought on a saltwater pool!

Also forgot, I'd want every room (and the backyard) wired for surround sound (except stuff like bathrooms where you don't need sound), and also connected so you could play the same music everywhere (if you wished, but each room could also operate independently).
And ofcourese the house would need to have a big theater room for watching movies.

PerfeKtstart (the original thermal switch version)

A couple of those would definitely need to go into the shop!