Me too, an extreme example a low power spotlight that failed 2 weeks after installation

Here are some of my pet peeves on the streetlight realm:

GE M250 fixtures losing their doors with very little effort due to their very weak door design (1993-present)

GE and some Crouse Hinds HPS fixtures that light up very dim (ex. 250 watt) compared to their twin next to them. I dont know if this is a capacitor or ballast problem.

Cobraheads with refractors on them that are from different brands

The GE M400R3 that is a copy cat to the AE version (which AE still makes)

Any cobrahead that isnt an FCO (I am partial to the optics on the GE units)

My pet peeves:

Cheesy looking retrofit T8 and T5s.
Mixing color temps on fluorescents and CFLs.
100w incandescents in 60w lamps and asking me why the fixture does not work or melted.
Taking out old school lights for something modern (LEDs,T8s,T5,eta) and failing in months when the old lasted years.
Cheap LEDs.
Government bans I want to choose the right light for me not the government (they know nothing about lighting).

I am sure I come up with more.

I have only one, Halides that are left in past 10,000 hours, some of our 400watters at work are the original lamps that have been in since, maybe, 2003!!!
As you can guess, their either out or exploaded, and the few hardy ones are burning with a lumen out put of about 2000 lms.
our works lighting would be great, IF it it was looked after better, now their moaning about all the gear thats burning out.....well duh!

I also hate seeing 34w tubes in vintage fixtures with full power ballasts.

The No.1 thing that I don't like is BULB AND BALLAST BANS!
the government think that we have to use junky cfls and t8s and wait for it....


ELECTRONIC BALLASTS! for 

  for 

I have many pet peeves that I have in regards to lighting. They include the following examples:

Being told that a certain lamp/ballast combination is not compatible even though I am able to drive the lamp at its proper arc voltage and current and being told that I must never conduct these experiments, For example, running a metal halide lamp on a North American Mercury vapor ballast in conjunction with an appropriate ignitor and being told that a 36w PL-L is NOT COMPATIBLE with ANY magnetic preheat ballasts while I am able to successfully run a 36w PL-L with a F40T12 preheat ballast and FS4 starter.

Governments banning non-LED lighting claiming that LED lighting meets energy efficiency standards that all Non-LED lighting does not despite the fact that some light sources such as high wattage high pressure sodium, low pressure sodium, and some metal halide lamps having a higher efficacy than LED.

Members hoarding large quantities of identical rare lamps and refusing to trade them off to other members if they have no use for them.

One of my pet peeves about lighting that I have is when people refer to all low pressure sodium lamps as “SOX” lamps. In that case, I personally do not like it when people interchange the terms “low pressure sodium” and “SOX” and say that it is the same thing and they end up referring to SO/H lamps, SOI/H lamps, SLI/H lamps, and GE’s NA-9 and NA-10 lamps as “SOX lamps” when they are in fact still low pressure sodium lamps, but not “SOX” lamps.

Here's my list of Pet Peeves related to lighting

- Replacing perfectly good fixtures
- Relamping and not cleaning the optical chamber
- Loose/hanging covers and diffusers
- Not knowing when a Metal Halide lamp will blow up
- Accidently snapping the wires on a good ballast
- People saying SOX lamps are monochromatic despite the fact they emit some invisible infrared waves
- Cold & Hot Cathode fluro tubes not being interchangeable
- Referring to lamps from their technical designators instead of the wattage and gas
- Being told I can't have fixtures due to stupid health and safety rules
- Dayburning lights
- Accidentally wiping the etch off a lamp
- Seeing T8 tubes in T12 fixtures and T12 tubes in T8 fixtures
- 175w MV lamps being as rare as hen's teeth in Australia
- Halogen lamps that go EOL with only one touch
- Antique fixtures with corn cob LED lamps inside
- Water inside floodlights
- Preheat fluorescent lights that act like they're rapid start
- Replacing LED with LED
- EOLEDs

Here are some of my pet peeves in lighting-
> LED lighting having dead chips, flickering (people with epilepsy will hate this especially) and purpling too quickly .
> In a pair of tubes, the NOS one is fragile and breaks easily and broken while the EOL or gassed one is strong.
> Lamps without ballasts; I like collecting HID and fluorescent lamps but the lack of availability of ballasts makes them useless.
> Seeing lamps that I want, be very common elsewhere (I still do not have any white 3500k or cool white 4000k-4500k TL (only 2x pl lamps in 840 and 640 colour), while they are throwaway lamps in areas like US and UK).
> Lack of information on some etches. All I am asking for is wattage and colour yet some brands STILL can't provide atleast these basic specs.
> Lamps without sleeve or box. Especially incandescents with weird shape.
> Standardized boxes so I can stack them.
> Lamps with terrible lifespan. I am looking at you, halogen.
> Shopkeepers being indirect. "Do you have any non LED lamps?" "No". Then later while asking for LEDs they show their stash of non led lamps.
> Standardized lamp sizes. Especially short TLs and CFLs.
> Seeing lamps I would like, rotting away and abandoned, especially specialty TLs and neon signs.
> Date codes. I am lucky that Indian brands mostly use direct numbers.

As I am more of a lamp guy than a fixture guy, I would like some attention to lamps being standard.

Update- here are some incidents elaborating further on point #2 (some similar)
1) In a 2x pl 11w fixture, the NOS one hit the ballast while removing and broke while the one with heavy use got out perfectly.
2) In two 5w pl lamps, the one with almost no use had a badly scratched tube and etch while the used one (deep darkening) has a shiny new etch and clean tube

Here's mine:
Calling a fluorescent tube a bulb.! 

 Would you beleive that GE referred to fluorescents as lightbulbs WAY back in the 30's !

Unfortunately I can.!
They deserve a slap for that.! 

 Honestly , I never really heard the word lamp used to describe anything other than either the portable fixture that you plug in (or an oil lamp) until I joined here !  I have and still do know a lot of people who refer to them as bulbs .  I even remember seeing a British science show on TV in which the narrator referred to both incandescents and fluorescents as "lightbulbs"

 A regional thing ??

Unfortunately I can.!
They deserve a slap for that.!

Oy..! I'm the Chief Slapper around here 

Although you're right, they do deserve one, in fact I'll give them another one myself 

To us, a lamp is something that lights up. Fixtures, fittings. lanterns or whatever are what lamps go in. Lamps can be bulbs or tubes, but a fixture or fitting is just that. We call table and floor lamps exactly that, table or floor lamps, but never just lamps.