Michael Rigby-Jones wrote: >Do the low voltage halogens have good life Yes, at least theoretically: thicker volfram/tungsten wire. Also, lifetime is greatly dependant on filament temperature; if you want long life use low voltage halogens and reduce voltage. Light colour (and effifiency) will be like standard lamps, but it will last very long. And thoose halogen lights provide much more (about twice?) as much light for the same wattage as standard lamps. And better colour spectrum (i.e better readability on resistor colour markings) than flourescent lamps. BTW, there are also great difference on colour quality on flourescent tubes, and it pays to select a "daylight" ones. See Philips or OSRAM homepages. Have not yet seen equally good compact flourescents. General legend: "Daylight"=best colour spread across the spectrum, bright "white"=usually brighter, but far from full spectrum "warm white"= less bright, filament lamp like light, only good for home where one would like more soft light. I prefer halogens though. I have made a simple installation where i have a switch to rearrange halogens parallel or two in series, to "dim" them at home in evenings. Better and easier than dimmers, which usually introduce noise (electric and acoustic). I have for my soldering workspace a 230V 150W frosted halogen in an homemade aluminium reflector with dimmer. I am very happy I made it. Nowadays i might better have used a bunch of 20W or 50W spotlights along edges of a square frame to give even spread light. Also, those reflectors let out IR radiation (heat) so we would get less heated in our faces. About lowering turn-on power: I have been using thoose same NTC as used in switching power supplies to reduce inrush power to softstart large 800W halogens. "inrush current limiting NTC" can get bought in different ratigs from i.e. Farnell. Or get them from scrap power supplies. Usually connected very close to AC inlet, in series, disc coated black. CAUTION: operating temperature is usually more than enough to melt standard wire insulaiton or plastic casings!! CAUTION: NTC:s not intended for inrush power use may explode! Regards /Morgan -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.