Low wattage lighting

[mikhe]

Can anyone recommend a lighting scheme for me?

I will soon be asking a contractor to rewire my home and replace standard ceiling lights with sunken spot lights (or something similar). The spotlights available in the UK seem to be standard at 40W and at that I will be using 6 to eight spotlights in a room . This seems to me to be an excessive load for the amount of light I'm going to get, coupled with the fact they are expensive and blow as often as any filament lamp I am starting to think it will be a costly exercise.

Is there a better option? Capsule halogens seem to be lower wattage (10W)but I can’t find out the brightness of these things so that I would know how many I would need.

Are there any other modern developments that I could consider so that I can move away from the old unsightly tungsten filament lamps and fluorescent tubes.

I would like them to be dimmable as well and would remove all tungsten lamps from my house if I could find an economic alternative.

 

[advidana]

I would stay away from halogens lamps because they run extremely hot.
If you need dimming the incandescents for the least expensive. a incandesent dimmer run about 8 dollars per room more but flourescent dimmer will run you about 200 dollars more per room.
Try going to a light store for help, for home use there is no any other lamps available. Try using mixing in some track lighting and wall light sconces instead of all recessed down lights in every room.