Re: Low Voltage Lighting

"DaveC" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Need to light a display in a dark room with less-than-full brightness
lights
> (ie, "mood" lighting). Would like to use small spots, but these are mostly
> quartz-halogen bulbs. To my understanding, QH bulbs must be run at full
> brightness, otherwise the filiments fail to "redeposit" properly.

not a big problem: turn them up full every once in a while.

> Also, dimming LV lighting is not straight forward (out of the box; I know
> anything can be done with custom controls...)

also not a problem: use a dimmer rated for LV. Lutron and others sell them.
They cost more partly because they are only available on the high price trim
lines. People who buy those trim lines are paying extra anyway. When I
opened a LV dimmer up (a few years ago) the only differnce I saw compared to
the standard dimmer was a snubber (RC network). You could modify it yourself
but I wouldn't. Pay the extra ten bucks and let Lutron oir whoever bear any
liability. BTW: if you use an electronic "transformer" (not magnetic, more
like a buck SMPS) then be sure the dimmer is rated to work with *that*.

> This leaves mineature incandescant spots. Wiring is a pain (mains voltage,
> conduit, code requirements, etc.), but if all else fails, I'll do this
using
> a dimmer.

Either way you have code requirements: you'll be runing line voltage to the
dimmer.

You haven't described your room in any detail but if you're trying to
minimize the amount of line voltage wiring try looking at cable lighting
systems: 2 bare wires are suspended across a space and driven by a remote
tranformer. The bare wires carry only 12 volts. The fixtures hang across the
bare wires.
Another possibility: use a LV landscaping lighting system. Or, adapt a LV
landscaping system into a cable system. All of these systems can be dimmed
(see above).

Bob