On Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 1:26:37 PM UTC-4, wrote:

US fluorescent lighting is different to UK in many ways. All our historic switchstart ballasts work fine with T12, T8 and a lot of LED tubes.


That would explain a lot of your attitude. But, your electrical power is, on average, 50% more costly than power in the US - one would think that energy efficiency would would be of greater concern to you than it seems to be. We operate a 464 square meter center-hall colonial built in 1890 for US$239/month (180 GBP). And we heat in the winter and cool in the summer. This includes heat, hot water, electricity, cooking, drying, and municipal water and sewer. Yes, we use a clothes line in the summer. But energy is dirt-cheap in the US relative to the rest of the world - not to suggest we waste it, but the only incandescent lamps we own are in the chandeliers. They too, are slowly giving way to LEDs.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA