Potlights..please help...

go with your electricians.. they know best.... they know what your interior decorator doesn't

Since when did Home Depot or any other DIY/Harry Home Owner Shop have a electrician on hand to answer questions?!?

Personally I try to stay away from anything with transformers for lighting. Line voltage for me. I would let my pocket book tell me what to do as long as I liked the view

A transformer means heat dissipation and loss of energy in radiation, not only is it a more complex system that will tend to breakdown more often it will also increase your electrical bill. Remember that for everything your interior decorator gets for your home she/he probably gets a cut and have a profund belief that when you pay more you get more which in this case is completely the opposite.

K.I.S.S. keep it simple and stupid

Although others seem to disagree with me, I like the MR16's better. As an electrician, pretty much 99% of the pots we install use MR16's. In the thousands(?) of potlights I've installed, I've never had to replace a transformer. Actually, I have had to replace "some" electronic (never magnetic) transformer's in commercial (never residential) settings.

Not that I've done any measurements with a light meter, but they sure seem to put out alot more light than the line voltage stuff, including GU10. In other words, you may be able to use less pots in a particular area, thereby SAVING you money, instead of costing more.

We use lightolier extensively, they make a decent product. The only downside I can see aside from initial cost, is the cost of a LV dimmer. Although if you're getting 24 pots put in by a professional electrician, I don't think buying a few LV dimmers is going to break the bank, besides it's not like the incandescent dimmer are free anyway.

Romy

Thanks for your reply Romy. Now that I've had the MR16s installed, I can now relate to what you've said below. The light quality is definitely superior.

defective...it

---snip--

No prob, glad you like the lights.

Romy

I'd suggest the line voltage style. I have heard of a lot of problems with the transformer style lights, as the HD guys said. You might want to get more first hand info from people who actually have both and see what they think, as well as talking with a good electrician about it. Thye have to go back and fix these problems, so they might well know if transformers are as big a problem as they seem to be anecdotally.

I don't know if they all do, but the one here in town has a guy in their electrical dept that was a master electrician until he got tired of the hard work and decided to get an inside job.

They also have two guys that used to be plumbers in their plumbing dept.