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this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
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Multiple 60w bulbs!
Chandeliers with 10 40w bulbs. Recessed lights - 4, 6, or 8 75w bulbs. It’s crazy!
500w or 1000w street lights too. That’s one reason we can absolutely have street level charging, if the owner of the lights plays along.
Street lights use sodium-vapor fluorescence rather than incandescence, which was actually more efficient than LEDs until a few years ago (and I believe that low-pressure sodium-vapor still is and only high-pressure sodium-vapor has been surpassed by LED tech).
So there isn't all that much power freed in replacing existing street lights lamps with LED.
However that tech doesn't really work well for lower power application such as home use, hence why people used to have 60W incandescent lamps at home or their fluorescent lamp equivalent (which is around 20W) that were replaced by first 10W LEDs and now even lower as LED light bulb tech has improved.
at least where i live, two-button light switches are called "chandelier switches" because they were originally used to control a single chandelier using two live wires and one neutral. having all the bulbs powered would make the room too hot, so they made a single lamp into two circuits.
also, fun fact, dimmer switches used to be a big file hazard because the current they had to dump from big light fixtures meant they would heat up inside the wall which could make the insulation catch fire.
Some places only permit electric utilities to sell electricity based on kwh usage, so it's tough unless the electric company also owns the street lights. Otherwise you pay an hourly "parking" rate, not one based on electric consumption