We have a couple of torchiere lamps. They have a dimmer switch on the vertical stalk and use a 300W “T3” quartz halogen bulb. After many years of near-daily use, one of them quit. The dimmer quit; not the bulb! Anyway that is not the point. It is an energy hog. Quartz halogen lamps are only marginally more efficient than ordinary incandescent. An LED design replacement would save a lot of energy, but I do not see a good solution “off the shelf.” I have been wrestling with this in my mind for quite a while.
I am aware of some LED replacements for T3 bulbs. But their light output is more like 150W equivalent or less, and I have heard that they are not very good; they do not last…
I had one idea of trying to use a BR40 LED reflector lamp. But that is significantly taller than the dish on top of the torchiere lamp. So it would either be ugly or a major mechanical re-fit. A new dish somehow.
My idea is to replace the halogen with a round (or octagonal?) board with LEDs. More major changes:
Instead of powering it directly from AC mains, my idea is to power it with an spare 18V power adapter from an old laptop computer. That would have plenty of power. The dimmer would probably be DC or PWM output boost (voltage step up) circuit; perhaps 36V or 48V output. I suppose it could alternatively be a buck converter (voltage step down) delivering maybe 12V to the LED board. It might even work well enough to just pwm the 18V of the power adapter output. And all of that would probably have to be on the floor, with wires carrying the 36V or 48V up the stalk to the pcb. The voltage decision will affect the series/parallel scheme for connecting the LEDs. Due to the laptop power adapter, none of us would need work with hazardous mains voltage.
The obvious criticism of this plan would be the power adapter and dimmer switch laying on the floor.
Does this idea interest anyone?