Guess what light this is...

[Mike]

Ah yeah slimlines always seem to be noisy but it's a nice noisy lol. I think the HO that I'm eyeing at my grandpa's shop has a nice buzz to it as well. I believe HO lamps are still old-school cool white, aren't they? Right now it's got a pair of 110W 4100K Altos with blue ends (the ends glow blue for some reason, but the lamps work fine and aren't mercury starved or anything). The other HO has GE tubes I think. The other HO is blocked by a ton of crap so I can't really tell, though it works. This second one has the reflector sections bolted on with bolts though instead of with clips like the HO near the door that I'd take if I had the room. If I had to choose between HO and SL though I'd definitely side with HO though.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

I probably would too, though I honestly prefer SL. 
Not sure if they're still old school halo cool white.  I know technically you're supposed to use the 95w energy savers unless it's a cold temp situation (Which an unheated shop would be) but no harm comes from using 110s in a warm place...I sure would!
Sounds like they actually have a decent amount of mercury...I thought the F96/HO Alto sucked but maybe not! I know someone's shop that has some Lithonia F48T12/HO industrials with Altos from 2003 and they are BRIGHT! Even in subfreezing temps they striate and act mercury starved for a bit (Probably only because they're Altos) then warm right up! And they're rarely used so if they had low mercury it would show since they're turned on literally a few times a year, if that. HOs would work much better in my unheated garage/shop but regular F40s (And even F34s) are JUST okay with the winters here...some LPF ballasted shoplights with 34w lamps never quit striating but are usable brightness so that's all I care about.  Slimlines would be a different story, they'd have to have 75w lamps for sure.  And 34s don't do well with those LOA type ballasts either...you want 40s for those with our winter temps. 
Now, if I lived in Fairbanks or something HO and full wattage lamps would be a must, and they might even still really struggle in those sort of temps. 

[Mike]

Hmm that's weird, I think they still sell 110W lamps and they're not labeled FOR COLD TEMPS ONLY. Come to think of it though, I don;t know if the lamps are 95W or 110W though... Those Altos be bought better be good since they cost him like $14 for the pair lol. At least with ES slimline and HO lamps they don't hurt the ballast since the ballasts are typically rated for shorter lamps. ES F40T12 lamps are just ballast fryers. ES slimline lamps are junk though. They're OK in the summer (but pretty dim) and in the winter they're terrible. They don't stop flickering! Flickering light really irritates me.

Yeah you can actually fry an LOA shoplite if you use 34W lamps (with the older ones at least) since, like the Benchlite ballasts, are built only to run 40W lamps (and run them at like 40% power lol).

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Yeah my 60w slimlines are actually pretty bright in a 75 degree room on the second floor of my house (heat rises) but if it gets below 60m degrees FORGET IT! They're kinda cool to watch though when they striate IMO.
I've heard that too but never have had it happen, though in subfreezing temps 34s won't start and the "starter" buzzes continuously which can't be good.  With 40s they strobe wildly but will eventually warm up.

[Mike]

Do you have 75W lamps to compare them to? The 75W ones are noticeably brighter. The effect is more dramatic with those horrible 60W CWX lamps, which are essentially the brightness of a F40T12 but stretched out to twice the length. The last time I was at my grandpa's shop (when I got the Harmony House preheater) I replaced a few 60W lamps just because they're so dim. Those Sylvania 60W CWX lamps really last a long time though. They just don't quit! I remember one that has markings on it and it's still working in the spraybooth after 10+ years!

Wow 75 degrees is a little warm for me. Is your bedroom that temperature or is it on the first floor? My room is usually 67-68 degrees around this time of year, which I find comfortable. That's my ideal room temperature, with an ideal air temperature in the upper 50s to upper 60s

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

No I don't otherwise I'd have them in there already LOL.  But that's something I'm looking for now. 
LOL the worst lamps never die! Same for 90s-early 00s GE 4' Watt-Misers.  Despite being flickery 34w energy savers they last practically forever, I see them in commercial use to this day with little or no noticeable wear! (I've killed several though on my own so they're not Andy-proof I guess.)  They're good tester lamps though or "use up" lamps (Which is what I'm doing in all my LPF rapid start shoplights and wraparounds). 
It's on the second floor directly in line with a woodstove LOL.  That room where the slimline currently is is the junk room (Full of lighting stuff, etc) and you have to go through there to my bedroom which I close the door on at night so it's cooler, though even this time of year I'm opening the window!
I like it nice and warm, though for the nicer 6 months of the year I don't run the woodstove at all and let it get down to 55 in here LOL...at that point the slimline would be flickering wildly I'm sure. 
That house in Atascadero got nice and hot though in the summer...and guess what? The A/C didn't work for the last decade or so.  But it was in a grove of oak trees, which helped...the weather reports would always say it was way hotter than what it actually was at our house.  But we'd get in the car and drive 45 minutes to the beach, down the same road many car commercials are filmed on!
I miss that area a lot...I'm considering moving back there.  Lots of places for a big lot like we'd both want, etc. 

[Mike]

Ah that's true lol. Yeah "Only the Good [Bulbs] Die Young" lol.

Are the "nicer six months of the year" the summer or spring/fall? 55 is nice for during the day when I'm dressed and busy working but a little cool when I'm in bed since i only wear a pair of boxer shorts to sleep, even in the dead of winter. I will also wear a pair of socks if i have to get up early in the winter since i don't want to touch the cold floor first thing in the morning and don't want to leave my warm bed lol. In the summer though I'm usually awake early though since I'm a furnace when i sleep, so often in the summertime I can't sleep because I'm too warm.

Yeah the area in Atascadero seems nice. As long as you don't get a house near the "drummer bummers" lol.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Yeah the spring/summer/fall, from about April to about October.  It gets HOT here sometimes, I have pics of thermometers at 120 even though it wasn't probably that hot I'm sure I've seen days where it's been in the 90s for sure.  I've also gotten REALLY BAD sunburn up here too!
I like it cooler when I sleep but warm during the day. 
LOL yeah, the only exception to that rule would be buying back the house I spent most of my childhood in (Which I would do in a heartbeat, and just go drive 45 minutes to the beach on those days) 
Maybe not so much Atascadero as some of the other places right around it, though. 
Remember how we talked about how irritiating it is waking up to landscapers in the morning? Well ironically after saying it's been quiet a couple of my neighbors have been out and about on their tractors and 4 wheelers respectively, so it almost sounds like I live next to a road LOL. And in the summer since my place is waterfront I get lots of fishing activity noise too from about July-September.

[Mike]

Wow I picture it never getting over the 80s in Alaska lol. You can even get sunburn in the winter. Here, the spring is the worst for sunburn since the "hole" in the ozone is over my region that time of the year. I'm pale so I burn pretty easily. My skin actually has a pinkish tone to it all the time. My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight too. I need sunglasses even on cloudy days when there's snow on the ground since it reflects the light from the clouds. There's a picture in Joe's gallery of us when we met up at the Vaughan Mills shopping center (biggest single-level mall I've ever seen in my life!).

Today it got up to around 40*F and we got some snow/rain. It was only an inch or two to shovel but it was hard since the snow weighed as much as wet concrete lol. I'd rather get two feet of light fluffy snow than two inches of the wet slushy crap. Plus, the wet slushy stuff will all freeze up whereas the fluffy stuff is already frozen. Tonight it's supposed to get down into the single digits and the high tomorrow is supposed to be around 15*F so everything will be an ice rink tomorrow. I shoveled my driveway down to the pavement though and the sun dried the driveway so there will no no ice on my driveway, but the roads will be a mess I'm sure.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Yeah I hate wet snow too!
These ballasts are huge, heavy, and EOL or energy saver lamps often cause tar leaks, if not total failure:

[Mike]

slimline?

This T8 lamp actually came out before it's same size and wattage T12 cousin.

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

F15T8?
I paddled across a local waterway in a canoe with this fixture, then walked almost a mile with it in my arms, exotic sawdust falling off it the whole way.  I then got it home, and opened it up, and realized I'd scored this: (Fixture type, brand, and brand/type/era of ballast).  Extra credit: It had (blank) for lamps:

[Mike]

Yep the F15T8 came out a while before the F15T12. In general, the F15T8 is for preheat and the F15T12 is for trigger start. I've seen preheat F15T12 fixtures but never seen a F15T8 trigger start fixture. I don't think F15T8s are really compatible with TS. I tried an F15T8 on my F15T12 TS strip and the ends glowed but the lamp wouldn't light unless touched and if you didn't touch it within a few minutes it wouldn't start at all.

Uh, would this be the Sears shoplight with the GE Bonusline ballast and possibly mainlighter lamps?

This was my second street light in my collection. It's NOS and it was bought off ebay in 2010. I'm looking for the brand, model number, wattage/lamp type, and ballast voltages if you can get that too. A hint: the light is my highest-wattage light in the collection currently (I probably just gave it away now lol).

[GEsoftwhite100watts]

Yeah, the first Sears shoplight, with the Bonusline.  It had post-EPACT, pre-HG cool white 34w Watt-Misers, but I never even tried them in that fixture, instead using a pair of those ahem...legendary...2011 Sylvania F40/CWP lamps. 
GE M-400-something, 400w mercury vapor, and multitap, right?
This fixture lights my backyard, but not in dusk-to-dawn like it's designed to:

[Mike]

Yep it's actually just the M-400 (but sometimes referred to as the M-400 split door by collectors do distinguish it from the 60s M-400). Yep it's 400W MV and technically the ballast has multiple taps, but it's not a multi-tap ballast since multi-tap is 120/208/240/277. My ballast would be considered dual-tap, with 120 and 240V taps. A few of my GE lights have those ballasts.

Electripak 175W MV yard blaster with cracked/missing diffuser with a 1990s Fisher Pierce PC with the window missing IIRC.

This light is currently in my backyard, currently with a super-browned-out lens, a clear 175W MV lamp, and a 60s tall Ripley photocell.