OK more news and excitement!
So I'm installing a few more of my umpteen loose fixtures around the house in places where extra light fixtures are handy.
I started with a LOA 13w PL electronic dusk-to-dawn jar light I was given a few weeks ago. It's electronically ballasted with a little button photocell. Ordinarily I'm not at all a fan of PL13s at all, partially because their startup is too blinky LOL...I like preheat for the "cool" factor but in reality I wouldn't want that fast flashing like those do...the linear lamps are much less blinky in my experience when starting up. But this one is instant-start electronic...although it's little button PC (looks like the one on a solar garden light!) "fades" on and off which makes me wonder about longevity for the ballast and lamp...but if that stuff craps out I have ideas/plans for converting it to magnetic preheat anyway, much as I don't care for preheat PLs, with a better PC that's "on" or "off", not "halfway" LOL.
I installed it lighting my "driveway". (no cars but I still refer to it as such, as well as the "garage". Where it is is a perfect location. Lights part of the driveway, the woodshed/storage shed, (4 posts and a roof pretty much), the front door, (Though not as well as the 3w LED PARs there do), and shines in the bathroom windows, providing a nightlight. For 13w CFL it's surprisingly bright, at least in the summer temps (It gets HOT here this time of year!). We'll see what it's like in the winter in 20 degree temps LOL. But now it's easily a 60w incandescent, maybe even 75w. Anyone know what the lumen rating for a PL13/827 is?
I had to fudge the mounting job a little bit though. Originally I was going to put the aforementioned fixture in a different place and put a fake-westinghouse GU24 porch light fixture there (and still might) but I had no 4" round box for that. With this fixture I was able to fudge it (it was missing parts too) by screwing into the T-111 plywood siding with a hex roofing screw and then pass the wires through about a 1/4" hole I drilled behind where the fixture was going, in the aforementioned T-111. Then I took a single-gang junction box, screwed it to the backside of the assembly between the studs (unfinished, partially-enclosed generator room) and wired it to a 2-prong lamp cord for now. I was going to hardwire with a regular light switch so it could be manually turned off as well, but I think I may now leave it on a cord so I can switch it between various banks of outlets right there (one generator, the other generator, or full-time power off my inverter). But in that case I still need to find a cover for the box I think, and devise some sort of strain relief. Even so, I'm sure it's probably not code compliant with no junction box and the wires passed through a hole drilled in the T-111 (But it's not exposed to weather, it's behind the fixture).
Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. Photocell is pretty sensitive to daylight too, though of course it still comes on when there's enough light to see around out there. Ran all night last night without any problems!
Next project was installing some lights in the storage loft/attic. I first roughed-in a Lithonia 1XF20T12 strip with an 80s Universal trigger-start LPF ballast in the starway going up (screwed on but not wired in yet). I then went to put the Lithonia slimline fixture up as an ongoing project; it's ballast is going and one lampholder is shot as is another on another Metalux slimline I have; so I was going to put this one up without it's plunger lampholders but to get it out of the way.
I took out the ballast to reduce weight hoping I could install it myself. Turns out the ballast dates to February 1989; so the Sylvania F96T12/CW/SS lamps from 1996 likely are not original. Then I discovered I don't have a stepladder here at all right now, so that project is on hold, is is mounting the 4 other Metalux 8 foot slimlines in the "garage". But I got the one dusk-to-dawn fixture up and going.
The Therm-O-Matic-X-ballasted shoplight is also going on the storage loft ceiling, as is a cheap Lithonia shoplight with an IPP "LOA style" ballast (that only lights one lamp) but here again I need a stepladder!
So yeah, I'm reworking/adding some lighting around the house.
On another topic, I think the whole driving thing is going to go off like clockwork (I hope; granted, Murphy really likes to mess around with me). Since I discovered my Alaska ID is expired (Scary, they still let me board planes, etc. with it; it's been expired for months and I've used it many times; I think it even let me take the SAT) I have go into the DMV next time I make it into a town (Probably Sitka). That should be in a few weeks. So I think while in there I'll take the written test and try to get my learning permit so I can start learning. By the time I get my license I should be 18 and good to go.
Which brings me to the next exciting thing going on for me...
Of course this means having to get a vehicle to drive. Especially since I'll be living in another city (Fairbanks, AK) and want to live off campus (University of Alaska Fairbanks). Also, understandably, my dad does NOT want to share a vehicle and insurance plan with a male teenage driver...which I can totally understand.
So this gets even better: today I was visiting with the same friend who goes junking/salvaging (We've both scored all sorts of good stuff, both lighting and non-lighting) and we got to talking about my plans to move to Fairbanks next year for school and how I want to live off campus, learn to drive, etc. Remember how I mentioned he also has a Deuce he's been trying to get rid of for some time now? Found out more about it today so, hey Mike, I'll update you; I said I would keep you posted.
Story behind it goes like this: Friend found it in the newspaper classifieds about five years ago now, in Port Townsend, WA (used to live down there). No photos of course and the seller wanted all of a whopping 600 bucks for it. Of course, you'd think it was a rust-bucket-but-runs pickup for that price and vague description (Friend sure did). The ad had an address, so Friend goes out there, and as he's relating this story to me I said "And I bet the look on your face was priceless!". Apparently, he told me, he didn't let on that he was surprised and ended up buying it anyway; it ran (That's a start right there!), had a new bed, new tires, etc...so it looked like something that could be resold LOL. Anyway, he told me, he stuck it up for sale for a grand, then the 600 he bought it for, had it on Craigslist for months, and nobody showed ANY interest whatsoever. Last time he was down there he even posted ads at all the organic-food places in Port Townsend hoping some farmer would want it. Nada.
Nonetheless, long story short, I may be ending up with it in a year. Of course I'd like to see pics, which he does have somewhere. He's selling his place down there and nobody wants the truck, so he told me he might just practically give it to me; if I'm still interested and things are going according to plan, if I want it it's mine. We'll see, that's a year away and who knows what will be happening for either of us by then. But potentially exciting, win-win for both of us.
We discussed multifuel options, making me think it is indeed an actual Deuce, and winterizing it for Fairbanks, AK in the winter LOL...
I'm going to try to find out more but so far it sounds good. It's going to be handy for my situation I think: I'd like to live off-campus, and cheapest rent in Fairbanks is like $400/month for a "dry" cabin (no indoor plumbing, that's really common there). So handy for the firewood chore (These places likely have wood heat), junk-collecting (8 foot fluorescents, free-on-the-curb furniture, etc) as well as moves every 6 months if needed LOL...as well as helping friends move THEIR households around every few months if needed.
So yeah, that's my exciting news for now LOL. This could become very interesting! (I'm sure I'm doing this all wrong by probably having a Deuce as a first, only, daily-driver vehicle, but I'll just respond to "Why?" with "Why NOT?". And there's plenty of ways to justify it: firewood, moving households for myself and other people while in college, the multi-fuel thing (run it on used motor oil or cooking oil, drive it for pretty much free), and of course the "cool" or "vintage" (1971 model) factor (Lighting metaphor could be relating it to a F40 tulamp preheater vs. instant-start T8).
So yeah, I'm at the same point of getting a vehicle as you are Mike...I'll keep you posted and share any pics I get of it. Time for the massive learning curve to begin!