(lengthy) Lighting Update . . .

So I spent the morning at Edward Joy Elec; but before I get into the different lighting options, I'm gonna mention that the everyone there is in love with our project. Just while browsing I had 3 separate employees come up and ask me about this "cool bus" they just heard about. I actually took Vince's rendering of the interior to help explain what we needed and it ended up helping a lot. So keep that in mind

down to basics:
1 The quick estimate is that for the space we have, we'd need about 500-1000 watts. In other words between 5 and 10, 100 watt lightbulbs, make sense? If anyone is interested in helping to test this out, let me know.

2 We need to decide if we want this lighting to more "general" lighting or "accent" lighting. Accent lighting would fit the system we've designed best. However, accent lighting isn't optimal for classroom space. Is this important? The bus will be primarly used during the day, so do we want to wash out the space with light or not? please post ur option on this. thanks

3 With limited space at the ceiling, it will be hard to have any type of recessed lighting. In addition, to the lighting fixture, we'd need about 6" of space for the can surrounding it. There are some smaller options with Halogen lights (issues with that is high level of heat created).

4 Any type of lighting from behind the arcylic plastic = ambient glow is pretty much out of the question. I know we nixed that last week, but my convo today basically reassured that fact.

5 Our initial idea about low voltage flourscent lights will price out at $750, this is a rough estimate - Ed Joy has a varitey of options which would alter the price. I didn't look very much into it, since I know quite a few people do not want florescent lighting. However, at this point seems to be our best option for a "general" lighting.

6 All the other options I looked at are for accent lighting (meaning under cabinet, cove lighting, track lighting). If you have any ideas for general lighting options other than florescent, please let me know.

7 Top recommendation is for Kichler Linear Lighting (low voltage, strip lighting system). Estimate total price at $1100. Very vestile system, I'll bring more info tomorrow. Basically if we decide after installation that more light is needed, we purchase more of the little bulbs and plug them straight into the track (we need to consider this in purchasing the transformer tho). The lights can be clustered or spread out, and can be changed by anyone.

8 Halogen track lighting. Estimate price (without transformer, etc) $400. Basic track lighting u'd see in residential bathrooms. Issue with heat, need to be careful about distance of materials from lighting, fixture and track is much larger.

9 LED Lighting (strip and rope). Initially I thought this would be our best options. However, I was informed that LED is actually very bad for lighting a space (better uses in signs and x-mas lighting, where your looking at the light) Ed Joy doesn't carry any examples, but gave me a manufactuer they like if we want to pursue that direction.

10 sorry for this lengthy post, just thought I should throw all the ideas out there for everyone.