lights
shortly after we bought our house, we replaced the existing lights with track lights on a fancy dancy touch dimmer switch. there they sat out of mind for 16 years. mostly. we changed a few bulbs. and sometimes we talked about whether we should use 40 watt bulbs or 60. really kinda wanted 50. especially now that i'm getting older and need more light to make out the tiny little letters that seem to have become fashionable. then one day a light burned out in the kitchen. it was a $5 light bulb. good grief. upon examination i can only conclude that the extra $4.35 comes from the metal cone that's inside the bulb. ostensibly to direct more of the light down out of the recessed can. it was dark again in the big room. and i thought about those track lights. they don't have reflectors. heck the inside of the lamp is black. so i got some tinfoil and made a cone. dang. it was a LOT brighter. but ugly. then the beautiful and talented alisa suggested painting the inside silver. i just happen to have some silver spray paint. so i tried it. much better. then i tried white primer. it worked even better. so i painted all of the lamps white on the inside. now we get 30% to 40% more light in the living room from the same wattage. go green.