What is the best type of lighting ?

What would the best type of lighting be for our home we're about to build? I have heard downlights get quite hot and dont throw out too much light? We have an allowance of 20 lights throughout our 4bed 2 bath 2 living area home & plan to have 3 pendant lights over the island bench in the kitchen. Any assistance greatly appreciated

LED would be the way to go. They are a bit dearer but far more energy efficient. If you have 20 lights and go LED you might decide you want to add more as one downlight in a bedroom for example I think looks a bit odd. Or you could get normal old school bayonet lights and add LES globes. We did LED downlights throughout. One pendant in one bedroom. Pendants Nd starlights in kitchen. Pendant in entrance. All pendants with LED.

You certainly don't want the old halogen downlights. They were hot, inefficient, and require big holes in your ceiling insulation. However, there is some merit to LED downlights, as they have efficiency as good as compact fluorescents. With appropriate design, they'll give plenty of light and are reasonably efficient. You do need a lot more downlights than you would have non-recessed fittings though, so they tend to cost more.

You'll get through those 20 light fittings just in a simple fitout, so you're looking at the $100+ each for each of the downlights. An open living/dining/kitchen area might have around 15 downlights, instead of 4 ordinary light fittings.

Downlights are the current look, and many people choose them for the commercial look they give. On the downside, the ones with a wide beam angle can cause lots of bright spots on the ceiling causing glare, or the ones with the narrow beam can mean deep shadows in some areas. In contrast, a single fitting has a lot of glare, but just in one location, so you tend to avoid looking at it.

Thank you both for the replies, much appreciated! I think i will use downlights for accenting and not rely on them for whole room lighting (i was originally going with is idea so its amazing how quick your decisions change with a bit of knowledge!) I am thinking warm lighting in lounge areas and crisp lighting in wet areas. Still alit to decide and read up on!