Can Light... What kind of Bulbs?
 

I am looking to replace the bulbs in the recessed or can lights on our main floor. The space is about 36' X 17' (Kitchend, Dining , and Living Rooms). We have 7 recessed lights and one hanging light above the dining table. The recessed lights have 65 Watt bulbs in them.

What I'd like to know is what kind of bulbs should I put in to get the most light out of them. In other words we would like to make the room a little brighter. Since this is slickdeals we'd like to get a "slickdeal" on them but am more concerned about getting more light.

Thanks in advance for any help!

something like this [amazon.com]?

Well that's a nice light bulb.... I guess I'd prefer to not spend $68 on one light bulb though :)

Yeah, keep an eye on those LEDs - prices are beginning to drop. I think you can get them for about $35 at Costco now. LED gives you bright light, very low power consumption, very low heat generation, and they last 25-50x longer than an incandescent bulb. The one drawback is, of course, the initial cost.

We tried LED lights in our cans. They do not stick out enough to make a lot of light. Most of the light gets blocked by the can. We went back to our CFL Flood-lights. I am not sure if you have floods now, but cans really need floods unless you can adjust the socket so it is closer to the can opening. This alone may solve your problem.

I would definitely go with flood bulbs as someone else mentioned. My favorites are GE Incandescent 65 watt large flood bulbs. They run around $10 a bulb, but last around 2,500 hours (though advertised for around 2,000 hours). If you want a cheaper solution Bulbrite brand 65 watt incandescent reflector flood lights are really great and are only around $2 a bulb and we get around 2,200 hours per bulb.


Bulbrite Industries 65W 120V Incandescent BR30 Indoor Reflector Flood Light Bulb in Clear (Pack of 2) (Set of 2)

This one is nice.I also want to get one...

We recently replaced our kitchen's 65W halogen downlights with 14.5W Philips BR40 LEDs [homedepot.com]. Huge electricity savings, bulb life of 25,000 hours, and a brightness boost because they're 800 lumens of output (equivalent to a 75W halogen).

When you shop for LEDs, only buy those that are Energy Star compliant (to make sure the color rendering is good), and I'd stick to the better known brands in the field, like Philips and Cree. If we had the money, we'd have gotten Cree's 12-Watt CR6 downlights [cree.com] which have a great CRI and are rated for 50,000 hours.