lightguy, thank you. I actually went back to read old posts on and around this topic, and in doing so saw that you do go to bat for the MR16s. Something else I thought interesting is the possibility of switching the bulbs for LED lamps down the road, when they become available. I'd be keen to do that. Something else you posted somewhere also caught my eye: you were responding, if I recall, to a poster concerned with buzzing LED lights. You said you had not encountered that, and it suggested that there was something funky going on at the wiring end of things, rather than owing to the luminiere. I think this is what I am worried about in making the decision to use MR16s, against the advice of my contractor (who is not the electrician) who would have me use the line-voltage GU10 lamps because he says the MR16s will buzz and blow out. I'm wondering if the wiring has been done in some kind of way that would make this more likely, hence his push-back. And, of course, if we go against his advice and all this comes to pass, we've no recourse but to do it over ...

A lighting designer's most often specified MR16 lamp is the GE Precise Constant Color. I believe they were the first with a coating technology that didn't degrade and color shift. Others like Sylvania came out with Tru-Aim and now almost everyone has a name for their upgraded lamp choice with a more stable reflector coating. Cheaper lamp coatings can produce poor colorings right from the start with a greenish fringe. Cheap lamp coatings degrade losing both lumen output from the fixture and shifting to an awful color. Philips and Sylvania now have coatings which turn more heat into light. Philips calls theirs Energy Advantage IRC and they had more variety of lamps available last I looked. This will be your best lamp choice with energy efficiency in mind. The GE constant color is still the best for an even beam of light. Some of the IRC lamps have a hot spot right in the center. You can add a diffusion lens to smooth out a hot spot if noticeable. These types of lenses come standard in high quality recessed fixtures like Cooper Iris and Juno Aculux but I've never seen one standard in a track fixture. I'm dont' know from your description what lamps you have since many can be called incandescent floods. If you have a R30 or BR30 then these are now only available in 65 watt. Only halogen Par 30 come in 75. An R lamp has a poor quality painted coating and flood R30s produce a very wide beam of light. Any Par or MR16 lamp is going to produce a more controlled beam. What this means is that you may need more fixtures to overlap beams of light and evenly light your kitchen. You should try the 45 watt 60 degree, depending on the fixture. Here is a link that might be useful: click on Energy Advantage IRC MR16 Lamps

Looks good, but I'm not ready to build my own light bulbs just yet. I'm surprised third party manufacturers would want to buy Cree components when they'll have to compete with Cree's own complete light bulbs. But I suppose small manufacturers don't have alot of choices if they want high-quality components.. I like their new LMH2 module with "sunset dimming" (I assume that means it gets warmer/orangeish when dimmed just like an incandescent); at full brightness it's 2700K, 92 CRI, 95 LPW, from 850 to 3000 (!) lumens. They're recommend for "high-end residential" use. Hope we don't have to wait long before these are incorporated into a complete lamp. Or can I just buy one of these and fabricate my own?

Lighting was my big block wall. I asked in the lighting forum and was referred to a showroom where I found a lighting designer whose wife had the same concerns as I did, so for the minimum fee I was able to take advantage of his knowledge. The law here requires that more than half of the total lighting wattage be in high efficiency lighting. As far as I can tell, what this means isn't that people decrease the amount of wattage used. Rather they increase the amount of lighting they put in. Sigh. I'd say that three quarters of the time I use natural daylight or indirect light bounced off the ceiling. The indirect light is 8 of the high quality, small fluorescent tubes in a square wooden surround in the center of the room. I had the ceiling painted a very pale tint of the medium-dark wall color to give the best reflection without going completely white. All of the fluorescents in my kitchen are sheathed with theatrical gels to reduce the color temperature to 2700K. That's similar to incandescent, though it's still washy light that doesn't define details as well as incandescent. It's the color of sunshine. As opposed to "daylight", which hurts my eyes. In the center of this fixture, I have a "skylight" with five more of the same sheathed tubes. It lights up the island and all the area around it. In the corners of the perimeter are 35w halogens with glass diffusers, plus one more in front of the pantry cabinets. They're recessed cans, but don't have the exposed holes. There are multicolored LEDs that give an overall balanced color under the cabinets, and a small decorative hanging fixture in the entrance way to the room before it opens up into the kitchen proper. All of these are on five push button switches with dimmers in the entrance way with the stereo controller. There's an additional switch/dimmer for a further three diffused halogen cans in the butler's pantry. The skylight fixture has an additional on/off switch in the dining room by the kitchen door. The indirects have an additional on/off switch by the patio door. The butler's pantry has an additional on/off switch by the dining room door with a button/dimmer switch for the LEDs over the butler's pantry counter. There are also two of the diffused halogen cans in the bridge cabinet which also has the HVAC duct over the clean-up sink. The switch is near the sink with the disposer switch (I prefer this to an air switch). They were supposed to be incandescent, but then something happened with the math. I rarely turn them on. Mostly for cleaning up after a big party. There are also the four halogen lights on a continuous dimmer that are part of the hood. The perimeter and under cabinet lights are vital for baking in the evening. The hood lights make it easy not to worry about any others for the stove. The skylight is usually too bright and needs dimming. There are no shadows on the island with it and the indirects on. My requirements were to have lots of light, no pools and shadows, and nothing to hurt my eyes, but sufficient that I wouldn't avoid cooking at night. Definitely achieved. You should have seen the circuit plans that were drawn on what was left of the old walls!! Talk about spaghetti!! But it all works perfectly, and I love that if I just want to do a little something in the kitchen I can just turn on the indirects, and I can add in as much as I need at any one time. At the same time as we did the kitchen, we redid much of my laundry walk-in closet. It just got a standard fluorescent cloud fixture, but also got the sheathes. It looks like morning in there, even late at night!