Indirect lighting is beneficial in a number of environments, including indoor sports facilities. Such environments require intense, evenly balanced light to optimize the performance of people playing or working in the facility.
Such facilities are occasionally lit by lights which cast light directly down onto the sports playing surface. In other words, the light faces down onto the playing surface. This is undesirable because of the glare produced: a player's vision will be impaired if the player looks into the bright light source.
Such a problem is overcome by casting light onto a reflective ceiling with a number of lamps which are hung or otherwise supported near the ceiling. These lamps include a reflective cover, usually bowl-shaped, with an opening in the cover facing the ceiling. Because the light bulbs are effectively concealed by the covers, the vision of persons playing in the facility will not be impaired by looking into a bright light source.
Some of the lamps of this type place the light socket in the opening of the cover, or on the side of the cover. U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,137 to Evans, Jr. et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,832 to Lasker, respectively, teach these arrangements. Unfortunately, the socket mounted in either of these arrangements will interfere with or block light reflected out of the open end of the cover.
Thus, the most efficient systems mount the socket in the closed end of the cover, i.e. away from the opening, and thus minimize the amount of light blocked by electrical components. This can present other difficulties, however. If the light is suspended from a ceiling and the power cord for the light also comes from the ceiling, the power cord must run from the ceiling to the lamp cover and then along either the inside or outside of the cover toward the closed end where the socket is mounted. This wiring arrangement is both unsightly and, in some jurisdictions, against the building codes.