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alwaysfixin_gw

My Recessed Flood Not Providing Enough Light

alwaysfixin
17 years ago

My living room has a 9' ceiling, and one 6" recessed light near the sofa, for providing light for that area. I also have a table lamp by the sofa for task lighting, and sconces on the opposite wall which are mostly decorative. The problem is that the ceiling's recessed light is near the sofa, but not over it, and I find that its light beam isn't quite wide enought to reach the sofa. It lights the floor under it very well though! I am not going to open up the ceiling to install another recessed light, so I am looking for suggestions here on how to get a broader beam angle for that one recessed light I have.

Currently the 6" recessed fixture has a GE 65W incandescent flood, BR40, 730 lumens. I tried replacing that bulb with a GE 90W flood, BR40, 1000 lumens, but all that did was make the area directly under it too ultra-bright, but no wider, so still not lighting the sofa enough. Then, I took out the trim, and checked the label on the housing which is Halo's H7T. The label specified bulbs as follows: 65W BR30, 75W R30 and 75W PAR30. I guess I shouldn't have been using the BR40 size, but it fit, so doesn't seem to have done any harm. Can anyone advise me on brands, styles of bulbs, given the 3 sizes the label says? Would changing the white baffle to something else help widen the light beam? Would halogen be an improvement? I do use the dimmer occasionally. Thanks.

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