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People often keep their rooms excessively bright while they are watching TV or just doing some other relaxing activity. Having extra lamps on wastes electricity and the heat from the bulbs can push up your air-conditioning costs in the summer. Often, you can set the brightness of the TV lower, switch off one of the lamps or dim them, and see comfortably.
Uplighting is excellent for this type of background light. First make sure that your ceiling is painted white or only slightly off-white. By directing the light upward so that it bounces off the ceiling, your entire room will be filled with soft diffused light. Torch lamps with compact fluorescent bulbs are a good choice for this application. There are also ceiling lights available that mount up high on the walls and the light is directed upward.