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I have gable roof and there are 4 halogen lights on ceilings. If I am sitting upright, it's good but due to the angle of the ceiling, if I move slightly to any direction the light goes directly to my eyes.

Even if I look at my tablet or phone the light reflection hits my eyes. It's very annoying and I searched to find some sort of diffuser but they are only used for light bulbs and halogen lights are flat and screwed inside the wall/ceiling. Any solution that helps is appreciated.

I am looking for something that is also good looking. I don't want to have something like a patch on the ceiling.

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xbmono
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  • Are the lamps installed flood, spots, or non-directional. Did you have a dimmer installed, single switch of each controlled separately? – spicetraders Jan 03 '17 at 02:46
  • @spicetraders Please look at the photos. There is no dimmer and one switch controls 3 of them. Those that installed above my sofa in the living room – xbmono Jan 04 '17 at 06:11

5 Answers5

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Well... if they are halogens, they are bulbs. Replaceable bulbs.

Replace them with something else.

You have to be cautious when selecting LEDs because some LEDs can be even harsher than halogens, depending on how they're diffused internally. However, you can count on a CFL bulb being gentler light.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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If you are happy with some DIY work - grating type diffusers which have an array of holes each maybe 15mm square, with the array mounted "some distance" below the light surface will provide full illumination downwards with a quite sharp cutoff at an angle.

Adjusting "some distance" and tilting the array will allow you to customise vision lines

Can be known as egg crate louvres - several examples here

One example - many styles exist.

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Russell McMahon
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I'm assuming the lights you refer to are in-ceiling recessed (a.k.a. "pot") luminaires using a PAR20 type of halogen lamp. Depending on the manufacturer and model, some of these come in two parts: the basic housing (which contains the electric box and wiring) and the trim (which is the visible portion). You can purchase an alternate trim for these luminaires. If you replace your trim with a gimbal trim, this allows you to swivel the lamp so that it points in a non-objectionable direction. Check out this gimbal trim as an example: https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.flush-gimbal-par20-trim-gloss-white-4-inch-aperture.1000169488.html

AndyW
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  • Yes they are recessed lights. I attached a photo of them as you can see the angle can be changed but the angle isn't that wide. The problem is the ceiling isn't horizontal and is slopping down almost 45 degrees. So regardless of the direction of the light, if I turn my head just a little bit upwards, the light goes directly to my eyes. That's why I think the only solution is a sort of diffuser but I can't find one for theses recessed lights. – xbmono Jan 04 '17 at 06:09
  • I think I see your problem. You already have gimbal trims, but the PAR20 lamps are not shaded and therefore shine into your eyes. Normally a black recessed trim like this one https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.black-baffle-with-satin-white-trim-ring-4-inch-aperture.1000154072.html can help by obscuring the lamp when looking at an angle to the ceiling, but may not help on a sloped roof for those seated opposite the slope. Now if you could find a recessed gimbal trim, that might be the solution... – AndyW Jan 04 '17 at 15:01
  • thanks Andy. Yes you're right. There might not be any solution for this as the roof is slopping. I'm not sure if I can get one of these https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.4-inch-retrofit-recessed-round-led-panel-white.1001009077.html and stick it over the opening of the light. Not sure if that helps or it may block the light making the room dark at night – xbmono Jan 05 '17 at 09:23
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They look to be adjustable on the direction so first step would be to try and change the pointing angle to be less disturbing.

I can not zoom in enough but the first picture looks more like a LED type. If you can confirm the actual model installed then you could add an appropriate dimmer to reduce the strength when desired.

If the lens are spots a switch to flood bulbs would put out a wider light "beam" reducing concentration of light making them more acceptable.

Last they make light shields and diffusers for ceiling cans to help reduce the directed glare.

spicetraders
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  • Yes they are LED... used to be halogen but I have replaced them. Because of the casing, I think they are called Gu5.3 I don't have many option and that's the only type of led I can find. Not sure they are flood bulbs or spots...I really don't know. About the dimmer I don't want to dim the lights it makes the room dark – xbmono Jan 05 '17 at 09:31
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Turn off the halogen recessed lights you find so annoying. Use a different light source.

James Olson
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  • I don't have any other light source. It costs me a lot to install new light source as the electrician need to wire up the ceiling all the way to the top of the gable shape ceiling – xbmono Jan 02 '17 at 22:07