What kind of floor lamp and bulb?

[Caienil]

I have a big living room, I need to light it. It's about 360 square feet and I can't install a ceiling light. It is a rental unit and they do not want to break into a plaster wall to put a ceiling lamp. So I need a floor lamp or lamps to illuminate the room.

Currently, I have an old floor lamp that uses an incandescent lamp (I forget about power), but it is not bright enough. Which lamp/lamp/power will do? What are the considerations? Are there any standard recommended wattages per square foot that I can use as a starting point?

[SDR]

A generation (or more) ago, the halogen torchière made a sweep across the land. There was a torchière war: you could get one for $20 at the height of the bubble. The full-spectrum light emitted by the (hot-burning) halogen lamp was a revelation---perfect for the bright colors in use at the time. But the real charm of the fixture was that it shed all its light upward, where it bounced off the ceiling in a perfect demonstration of "indirect lighting." Rooms glowed, and expanded. Mr Wright would have shrugged, with a twinkle in his eye: he had been lighting spaces via their "overheads" forever.

A neighborhood lighting store or big-box store should have a comparable fixture, no doubt with LED lamps, among their offerings; bring home at least two---perhaps three or four---with the understanding unneeded ones could be returned. You will likely want a reading light or lights near seating pieces. Dimmable fixtures will enable you to tailor the illumination to the hour or the desired mood, eliminating the need to precisely calculate wattage.

Rooms lighted thus take full advantage of the higher-than-eight-foot ceiling that has apparently become the norm. Naturally there is a limit to how far away from the light source the ceiling plane can move, before too little light is bounced back to be effective. The rule of thumb might be, double the number of fixtures for every three feet of additional height over eight feet---or some such.

A quick look online reveals a wide range of uplamps, from $10 to $300. The tilting-head torchière seems to be a thing; lamps with adjustable down-lights are also on offer.

S

[Roderick Grant]

Beware of halogens. They can ignite fabric, and char plaster or wood if too close.
I have LED throughout my house, and they work wonderfully, giving off a light no different in color than incandescent. They are also the opposite of halogen: they are comparatively cool, while halogen is hot as hell.

[SDR]

I'd be surprised if halogen hasn't been completely displaced by newer technologies, primarily LED. Remember that LEDs are available in various color temperatures, as measured on the Kelvin scale. Some LED devices are dimmable, while others are not, I believe.

You will find Kelvin numbers on the packaging of lighting devices, including LED lamps (bulbs).

http://www.powerled.ie/user_files/image ... _chart.jpg

S