You can never protect against what someone may do

Someone may decide to put 250w halogens in the garage instead of my lights

500w mercury vapor lights as outdoor lights

I was actually surprised that I had close to 100

I also walked around while eating a sandwich

Or like me they may have 125a of Christmas decorations they put up

Protecting aginst what someone may do would be no more then 18 100w fixtures on a 15a 1800w circuit

I’d need 5 dedicated lighting circuits instead of 2 (my 3rd has dining room outlets)

I have enough circuits so every light in my house can be on at the same time – including outside, basement & garage lights

50% could be upgraded to 100w incandescents & still turn them all on

With the 30% reduction required in incandescent use I coudl replace 75% with the newer lower energy incandescents & still not have a problem

Even with a party & a bunch of friends over we don’t have all the lights on

So you need to balance the number of circuits against use

I have 40 MR16 LED bulbs (32 led’s) that use less then 2w each – pretty bright

I will be installing the throught the house on a dedicated circuit – they run off 12.6v

So to light up most of my house I will be using less then 80w – if they are all on at the same time