If you are considering 2" or 3" pot lights, they most likely will be low voltage. The most common approach will have each light wired to 120V AC. Each light will have its own power supply to power a small bulb (at either 12 or 24V DC) Pros 1. very small aperture which in some cases is the overriding consideration. 2. easy to install compared to 4" cans since the entire unit is supported by the ceiling board (drywall). Cons 1. Replacement costs can be significantly higher (as much as a new install) since there is a power supply embedded in the can which does fail. If you already have 2 sconces planned, you could utilize high output light sources (eg - 26W CFL) and save the hassle of having additional pot lights.

Hi, When we built my house I asked the electrical guys to put in Wall plates for CAT6 (dual, one for ethernet, one for phone) at each point. Then bring all the home runs into the basement with plenty of slack. You can do the CAT6 stuff yourself, but the most difficult bit is you need to do it in a timely manner. I.e. you need to get all that wiring done while the sheet rock walls are open. Remember on a build, time is money. If you throw off your GC's schedule there is a knock on effect. A 4 month delay is going to hit you on interest and cost overun charges. I would get the contractor people to: 1) Put in the home run CAT6, x2 per point 2) Put in Coax for TV, x2 per point 3) Put in Coax to the roof (for possible Satalite dish) 4) Put in Coax to the roof (for possible Antenna) You can then mess about with the home runs and your rack of equipment in your basement after you move in. The home theater bit is more tricky. You need to put in lots of cables for that TV. Also these cables have finite length. 30 feet is like very long for an HDMI cable. While you have your walls open put in: 1) HDMI cables x2, from TV to cabinet 2) RGB cables x2, from TV to cabinet 3) L-R Audio pairs x4, from Tv to cabinet 4) Coax where the TV will sit to basement 5) Coax where the Video recorder will sit to basement 6) Video, x1 from TV to cabinet 7) S-Video, x1 from TV to cabinet 8) Power points with Surge supressor socket in wall at TV 9) 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick piece of plywood where you want your TV to be. A big piece, and secure this to your wall studs and place behing the sheet rock. Those TV's are heavy, especially if you want a swing out articulated mount. That is alot of cables. Avoid Monster cables which are a rip off. I got all my cables from Pacific Cable. Prices and service I found to be good and the cables work fine. I recomend alot of cables because once you put up that sheet rock, you are done, no chance to change. For complete home theater you also need sound. I did not have speaker wires put in. So am not that much of an expert in that area. I would say that ticker is better and fortunately fairly long runs are OK. You need to figure out where your speakers should be though and plan accordingly. Other low voltage wiring includes, Alarm, Smoke, Carbon monoixide detectors. recommend you get ADT / Brinks or someone like that to ensure it is up to code, and will interface OK to their monitoring station. Finally there is the door bell... which I would leave to your carpenter. So that you have a nice looking finished look. Wiring is easy. Mounting nicely etc. more difficult. Hope this is useful. Best, Mike. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.pacificcable.com/

Where all the other bulbs are a normal intensity, this sounds more like a bad connection to me. It it were from too much of a load, all the bulbs should be dimmer than normal...not just one. Just out of curiosity, you do have the same type bulb in this light, right?

In the much older telephone world, one of the Bell subsidiaries installed all the wiring in the house and also provided the phone instruments and any special devices. If it broke they would fix anything, including replacing the phone. However, it also meant that you could not add phones or connections without going through the phone company. All this changed during the Bell breakup and deregulation, and we added a demarcation point where maintenance shifted from the phone company to the homeowner. In most cases we now have two boxes on the outside of the house, one for cable and one for phone, and this is the demarcation point. All wiring outside this point is the provider's responsibility, and everything inside belongs to the homeowner (inside plant vs. outside plant). They can turn service on or off by simply opening that box and making or breaking the connection. Cable companies confuse the inside/outside responsibility split because they really want you to keep paying for services. They are not legally bound to fix any of the cable inside your house, but if they don't fix it you probably won't buy as many services. Bruce