Folks,
There are a lot of different types of lampholders.
Not only your Incandescents, but you have Halogen Linear, Halogen Single Ended and your smaller Halogen Burners.
Not forgetting Fluorescent, Tombstone and all the variations of that theme.
It's a mine-field.
That's quite true, there are probably at least a hundred different bases when you add all the different 2-and 4-pin compact fluorescents. What I was referring to is that here in the US, most table lamps and residential fixtures use an E26 base, and you will always be able to find bulbs to fit that in any supermarket. If you decide you want MR16s instead, that's your call, but the default--the least expensive and overwhelmingly most common option--is the same all over the country. I knew DC bases were common in the UK, Australia, and India, and I knew there was some difference between E26 and E27. What I didn't realize is the number of countries that use both E27 and DC.
In the US, there are something like 160 different receptacle configurations recognized by NEMA, and at least dozens of others can be found, but there is no reason the average traveller needs to carry adapters for any but NEMA 5-15 and 1-15. It's sort of the same thing with light sockets.
[This message has been edited by yaktx (edited 01-12-2006).]
