yeah state owned bui,dings always have weird stuff going on.
6500K is indeed really blue but like I said once before one of the funniest things I've seen was the supermarket lit by a random mix of 6500K and 3000K! But the 6500K lit areas were really pleasant to shop In IMO.
so I looked up the place with the fixtures in the scrap dumpster in the phone book I'll look it up on Google Street view later so the story makes more sense, a picture is worth a thousand dollars words.. here's how the conversation went...have a good laugh at my expense...next time I try something like this I will put it on speakerphone and record it...
Office lady: Sitka Sound Seafood
Me: Yeah, hi, hey, do you guys own the big concrete warehouse across the street from the plant?
Office lady: Yes
Me: Hey, I'm calling in regards to the scrap metal dumpster out front. Are items in there up for grabs to the general public?
Office lady: Hold on...
(silence)
(ringing tone, I've been transferred)
(it rings umpteen times)
Some guy: Hello
Me: Yeah, hi, I was wondering about your scrap metal dumpster. Are items in there free to the general public?
Some Guy: (sounds really surprised and incredulous) No, they're not. Either we'd use them ourselves or send theme back for recycling
Me: OK, thank you anyway
(click)
I may still drop in in person and ask...
So I've had a lot of time to get to think about some plumbing and electrical projects I intend to do over this winter. Including, but not limited to...
Moving my home brew F40 preheat setup out of Sears Shop light 3 into the other old vapor tight channel like the one I put the dying Advance slimline ballast in. I want to take out the ballast which trips it's thermal cutout, and replace it with something else. I'm thinking the most likely candidate, at least for right now anyway, is a Universal 2 lamp 14, 15, 20 watt LPF currently in a Lithonia 2 foot strip. I think if I shunt it for one lamp and use a 4 foot lamp it's electrically the same so it should do fine, just wiring a starter in line with the cathode heating circuit. It's a wimpy enough ballast to work well for that I think, it's nothing spectacular running a pair of F20T12s, in fact it's dim and flickery on MSW inverter power which isn't ideal.
I'll thus convert the 2 foot strip to 12vDC with a pair of solid state 13th PL 12v ballasts I have, which will be comparable in terms of brightness to a LPF 14, 15, 20 watt ballast with 20 watt lamps, but at least it won't flicker!
The Sears shop light I take the preheat setup out of is going to be rapid start again, this time HPF too like it should be! It is getting a 1979 Advance Kool Koil this time, which is starting to suffer from Degraded Cap Syndrome like often happens to Advance ballasts of this era, but is still useable. If it gets really bad I'll use it to make a 3 foot fixture, I have the lamps already. Said shop light is going on my bedroom ceiling for now I think, until a I get new lamp holders for my circa 1989 Lithonia 8 foot slimline strip, which I found a new GE Total Performance Systems ballast for earlier this month new in box for 30 bucks at the junk store.
Unless...later this week I may be seeing the electrician friend who is trying to get me a couple 8 foot fixtures, and maybe I'll end up with them. That's an exciting possible acquisition.
My four other Metalux 8 foot slimline fixtures are going up in the garage too if all goes as planned. I plan to get to Home Depot and get a case of 75 watt daylight deluxe Altos for now, since I now have five I footers and potentially a couple more on the way, although for all I know those are High Output!
I plan to install a 2004 Lithonia shop light with the LOA type ballast, which only lights one lamp, above a shelf I'll build in the dining area as an indirect ceiling light, and I'll give it my only CWX lamp. That should be interesting when done.
Above my range's new location and above its current location where a vintage wood cookstove I'm getting is going to go, will be a pair of very 1970s incandescent fixtures out of a house teardown, the same place the first Sears shop light came from. I plan on using clear halogens in those to enhance how they look. Probably Sylvanias.
Another indirect light is going to be a 1940s Bakelite box and fixture I saved, which I plan to fit with a preheat circling adapter and Philips daylight deluxe lamp. That one goes in the living room.
And finally, a vintage, 1940s PAR38 fixture is going up in there too to highlight a painting, or outside. Not sure yet.
And plumbing...this wood cookstove is going to mean plumbing changes and moving my water heater. (It has a water jacket). That's exciting, goodbye diesel dependency for hot water! And wiring up the electric element in the tank for when the stove isn't going. Once I get my big generator going again.
It'll be a really busy winter too. Once my current job is over (26 days left as of today, July 27th and I can hardly wait for it to be over, even though I'm making 150 bucks a day, which is a good, well paying middle class job, I don't plan. to quit but certainly don't Intend to work this same job next year, I've been doing it 3 years now and that's enough, I'm done with it, for a variety of reasons) I'm starting my senior year of high school and also trying to apply for a couple jobs close to home. One is the school food service worker job (I will need to obtain a food handler card from the state of Alaska for that) and another job opportunity is working on the maintenance crew for the City of Port Alexander, I'm trying to get on the on call list. I started this process back in May but haven't had the chance to submit my application because first of all I couldn't locate my birth certificate and social security card, both of which I need to prove I'm not an illegal ailien, and the. because I left for a job away from home LOL.
I can also think of another possible job or two this winter but if nothing else the city job is pretty open so I'll probably get it.
And around October I hope to take some time off from school to go do drivers ed in Juneau, since I'm being pressured by my godparents to know how to drive when I visit in December. While there I plan to further investigate the M400A. I'll take pics of the insides and post them on here and LG. I'll probably bring one of my 400 watt HPS lamps to test, and if it works may buy a 250 at Restore or Home Depot. If not I'll disconnect the ignitor and try a 250w MV lamp and see 8 it warms up and cycles. If still Nada I'll probably just wire the socket to the mains and use a large CFL or remote ballast it to 175w mercury. But even that is not Necessarily ideal since the optics will be all wrong, am I right? I suppose I could also remote ballast it to 400 watt MH. Last time I was in the local Restore there they had a 250w high bay MH which might justify buying a 250w MV lamp to test the HPS ballast if the ignitor is bad, since if it still won't work I could gut the high bay for its MV/MH ballast. I might stick it in the fixture if that happens, or I might remote ballast it leaving the original guts in place for if you want it Mike, I know you despise other peoples hack jobs inside cobraheads. I think I'd take it to Fairbanks if I get a place there, I should have city power so can put a large fixture in dusk to dawn use! Probaby lighting a driveway or backyard. Driveway is most likely since I'd be commuting in the dark in the Winter and it'd be nice to have a light outside where I park so I can see to warm up my vehicle, shovel snow, and load and unload junk.