The torchiere lamp does a really nice job of lighting a room, but with a blazing hot 300 watt halogen bulb they’ve also had a nasty track record for igniting rooms. Ten years ago, these were a required addition to any dorm room or apartment that lacked overhead lighting–the bright upward facing light bounces off the upper walls and ceiling to create a soft blanket of light from above. With their massive energy use and dangerous reputation, however, the torchiere is no longer a very popular lighting option.
Instructables user bben46 took to solving this problem, creating a cool-running, energy efficient, compact fluorescent version of the torchiere:
I converted my 300 Watt lamp to an energy efficient and cool 20 Watt CFL type bulb for less than $10 in parts.This modification results in a savings of 280 Watts. With the addition of the second 20 watt CFL, the savings comes down to only 260 Watts.
Keep in mind that the color spectrum of the CFL is pretty different from the halogen bulbs, but the conversion is a simple wiring job and the result is a safe and cheap way to light a room from above.
Show of hands. How many of you have one of these stored away in the basement just waiting for a CFL conversion?
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