Yeah, as far as vintage institutional buildings are concerned, I secretly hope they NEVER redo the older wing of my current school from '79. Wood-plank plywood paneling, all the lights are F40/RS, many with original PCB-laden ballasts, you name it! Even the second wing, from '84/'85, is also all T12 and looks pretty retro. I like retro architecture actually unlike many, I'd love to find a house with a '50s-'60s-'70s kitchen still all original.
So I bought two Advance 3-lamp E-Pak 34 ballasts on eBay, for the 1X4 Metalux/Gibson troffers which came out of the aforementioned dated building from '79 One ballast will go in the one which is already 3-lamp, since it's currently powered by two ballasts that don't work quite right (One, a Universal Therm-O-Matic, is half-dead, shunted for one lamp, has a rusty case, and has frayed wires where they enter the case, and the other, an Advance Kool-Koil, trips its thermal protection after awhile; fire hazard with both of those ballasts in all reality. That said I won't be tossing them either). The other, which I'm typing under, has an absolutely perfect PCB-containing Therm-O-Matic which I will still replace with the other 3-lamp ballast and modify the lampholder brackets for a third lamp (some jigsawing with a sheetmetal blade is going to be involved). The good Therm-O-Matic ballast...not sure what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll use it to "Upgrade" one of my other shoplights or wraparounds with "BenchLite" style ballasts, or I might just keep it as a good spare. The three-lampers are ultimately going to new locations anyway, one in a dark spot in my kitchen and one in the garage over the band saw; a 3-lamper will be perfect for the latter application! The 34 watt lamps are going to suck in the unheated garage but inside a troffer they should warm up fast. I think I'll have to buy some more 34 watt lamps unless I can scrounge some from elsewhere. I'll also try these 34w-optimized ballasts with 40w lamps but knowing the electrical characteristics of the 34w T12 I doubt performance is going to be impressive with three 40w lamps...I may try one or two 40w mixed in with one or two 34w and see how well that works.
The best part? For two ballasts, and shipping, it set me back a whopping $17.50 USD! Ordinarily I'd say my lighting budget is shot right now but not for something cheap and quite frankly kinda unusual, like those ballasts!
I've been spending less and less time on LG and GOL as I've gotten busier and busier with school, getting close to graduating. Means applying for scholarships left and right, LOL. Looks like I'll JUST be able to afford my first year of college...without student loans, which I refuse to take out. Depends on work and if I get some money I loaned my dad repaid. Getting little things figured out here and there, sometimes even GOOD surprises come up! I may have (totally by accident, mind you!) run into someone I could rent a room from during my freshman year and then for my sophomore and junior years rent/house-sit for if the place I've been trying to acquire within two hours of the university doesn't work out (We'll see, things are changing daily! Even if it does I might be able to stay there during the week, within maybe a mile of the university, not a 2-hour, 100-ish mile drive. (Remember all the streetviews of the not-quite-freeway-in-places Richardson Highway? That'd be a "freeway" I'd be commuting on if I end up living 100 miles away part-time. Possibly screaming down the right-hand lane at 50MPH in a Deuce.