Had pot lights in a closet many,many moons ago. They were grow lights for pot! Now if i could only remember where that house was......

You might ask over at the lighting forum.

My wife and i placed our lights but we were surprised that our electrician had a talent for it and gave us some advise, so we made some changes. You might run it by your electrician as well.

Think in terms of lighting 'strategies': What activities will you be doing in the space, and how will you want it lit at those times?

For instance, you may want small cans on a dimmer around most of the perimeter to illuminate art work, provide background light during TV veiwing. A larger can over a game or craft table, a couple over areas where you might have a reading chair.

A couple switched outlets for lamps can be nice, and there's no reason that ALL your lights have to be cans: a couple pendants or swaggable ceiling fixtures to bring the light down to where you want it is very nice to have.

It's not that you'll ever necessarily have them all on at the same time, or have them at full brightness if they do. It's more about providing an appropriate level of light in each area for every activity that you will do there.

A 50w. PAR20 is a line voltage halogen parabolic reflector lamp that fits in a small (4" diameter) recessed downlight. It looks a bit like an old sealed beam headlight with a standard Edison base. It is difficult to find it in a fixture that allows much of a lamp pivot but it is cheap and effective so it is best used as a downlight for task lighting or general illumination on a 48" grid.

A GU 10 is not the name of a lamp but a type of double studded twist lamp base that allows a halogen MR 16 lamp (16/8" = 2" diam. Multifaceted Reflector) to be used on line voltage power instead of low voltage. It has been very popular in Europe and is now available in the U.S. I have yet to see any fixture that uses it but if it is available with a 35 degree tilt, it could be used to light walls in place of more expensive low voltage MR 16 fixtures. I suspect the beam spread is narrower than a PAR 20 lamp so it would be good for task lighting but not so good for general illumination.

Thanks for the info.

I see a lot of GU10 fixtures in Canada. They seem quite popular and in fact the other MR16 (I think 5.2) fixture is hardly used any more. The PAR20 is a yellow light while the GU10 is whiter.

So what do you recommend for the basement? I am looking for general illumination.

The PAR 20 downlights are usually half the price of low voltage MR 16's but are very limited in their application as I mentioned above. I can't tell you anything about line voltage recessed MR 16's because I have never seen one. I like to wait until something has a track record before putting it in a client's house.

I suspect that the low voltage puts out a lot more light than any of the line voltage lamps, after all, they were invented for projectors. All of these lamps are halogen and should not look yellow. However, some (like the lower voltages of MR16's) can be blue and I find that unattractive.

Is the ceiling insulated? If so, it limits your choices greatly.

If you buy MR16's make sure they are of the highest quality from an electrical supply house; it will save you money. The good ones have a dichroic coating on the reflector to reduce heat from infrared light and a lens (either part of the lamp or in the fixture) for protection in case the lamp explodes. Don't touch them with your skin or shake them if you want them to last a long time.

No the ceiling is not insulated.

In my house I already have par20 (family room) and the look yellow and MR16 (kitchen and living room) and they are too bright and stark and GU10 (bathrooms) they look nice but I only see them in a bathroom not a full sized room.

I just am not sure what the best option for the basement would be.

How far apart do you think they should be installed?