T12 is still plentiful in houses and "mom & pops" stores, but the wonderful IS T8 has virtually taken over the commercial world. My school is the only place I've ever seen programmed start. The tubes aren't that black at all on programmed start ballasts, but the IS ballasts at my school make the lamps VERY black at the ends. They change the lamps in the IS fixtures much more than the ones in the PS fixtures.
Ahh 1999 back when:
truss lights still ruled most of the freeways here
the 404 still had the original late 70s OV 25s with glareshields
incandescent traffic signals were everywhere
T12 was still plentiful
Tulamp ballasts were still made
CFLs more or less looked like PLs (I remember seeing a Bata shoe store back in late 1998/early 1999 with PLs sticking out of the recessed cans).
8-8-8s were still plentiful
LPS was still used on the Gardiner (parts were torn out in 1997 but most stayed until 2006).
Merc lamps still came in BT.
Linear fluorescents have never been a big thing in houses over here, I rather looked at fluorescent fixtures in commercial buildings. I think the first time I saw T8s where I expected T12s is in my local Wal-Mart when it opened in 2002.
Well I am older than you guys here, so 1999 didnt seem that long ago lol. Although there were more mercury lights still in service around here, T12 was everywhere, the city of LA still hasnt adopted LEDs for its traffic signals, street series incandescent lamps were still made by Philips in Mexico with at least some Westinghouse design features, etc. CFL sales were still less than 1% of all general service lamp sales. Things changed fast!
Wow. Here, most of the clamshells were killed off right before National Grid moved in. There were a few clamshells remaining on side streets in urban Cranston, but National Grid layed those to rest in that scrap yard in the sky.
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truss lights still ruled most of the freeways here
the 404 still had the original late 70s OV 25s with glareshields
incandescent traffic signals were everywhere
T12 was still plentiful
Tulamp ballasts were still made
CFLs more or less looked like PLs (I remember seeing a Bata shoe store back in late 1998/early 1999 with PLs sticking out of the recessed cans).
8-8-8s were still plentiful
LPS was still used on the Gardiner (parts were torn out in 1997 but most stayed until 2006).
Merc lamps still came in BT.