Unless you plan on ordering all of your lamps online, the fact is you are going to be limited to the resources at hand in your local community. While we could go on and on about Kelvin temperature and CRI, and if you're really anal and need to have both match, the fact is, you probably aren't going to find a particular lamp shape, lamp diameter, base to lens distance, Kelvin temperature and CRI, let alone the particular lumen level your are looking for. It's just too many choices and most stores will carry only what is popular, and those lamps are basically popular because of ignorance about the whole lighting thing.
So, maybe there are a few do's and don'ts that certainly will come into play as most of us "refit" our homes with new lighting sources.
I guess the first one is to pick the lamp lumens output (and I'll use watts here to keep it simple) that best meets the needs. You all know that. So that means it doesn't make sense to buy a 60 watt lamp if you plan on dimming it down 60%. Then you might as well get a 40 watt.
It probably is a bad idea to mix lighting sources in a room where both sources will be on at the same time, like mixing LEDs with CFLs or Inc. If you pay attention to the Kelvin temperature and the color rendition index, you should have a great mix, but if you plan on dimming some of them, all bets are off.
The other thing that comes to mind right now is to be cost weary. While some manufacturers claim huge hours on some of these lamps, the truth lies elsewhere. Depends where the lamp is used, what position it is in and if it's dimmed, also, how many times during the night its turned on and off.
Wayner
