Are they all down lights or just the positions of the lighting? Anyway to get the cost feeling you need to use lamps. Apart from your kitchen it looks ok. In the kitchen you need to add them between your head and the oven/sink/cooktop. Are you going to have pendants over the island?

You might want to add power points to the linen and pantry as well.

@bigreader Pendants over island - yes

they are all batten lights 9watts/light - all very technical, not sure if this is light bright enough.

how about the rooms and hallway?

we have white walls, fyi

I’d use powerpoints with USB ports so you can charge your phones, iPad etc. I have mine on the side of an island bench it is so convenient.

@Cheryl Kingsman thanks for that. Really worth it. What can you say about the anount of batten lights? Do you think we need to add more?

You might want some lighting outside the garage. And within the garage you may want to add a power point for a future remote garage door. I think the rooms and the hall are fine with one light. What will you be doing in your hall that needs extra light? BIT I’m a big lamp person and use them through out my house. I forgot to mention make up prep lighting in the bathroom will need another light fitting. Will you get a chance to review your power points, they look more of a problem than your lighting.

Do you have a photo of the lights your using? I’ve enclosed a photo of a batten light do yours look similar.

Zero. It is not about the quantity of light, unless you are lighting for an operating theatre, it is about quality. Downlights cast harsh light and strong shadows. Best to consider a mixture of pendants, oysters, wall lights, and lamps for more flexibility and a better quality of light. Downlights are popular in display homes as they help disguise poor plastering to the ceiling, and are cheap.
Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls and Dr Retro Virtual Visits

For the last 30 years , everything that was 'manual' has gone electric and/or computerised . Obviously you can take that to the extent of making every light , every power point , your stove and washing machine and garage door all operate off your phone .

I know you only asked about downlights , but even then , as Dr Retro says , they are cheap , and I assume you are talking LED ( doubt if you would find the old bulb type , but you'd be mad to fit them anyway -- LED lasts 100 times longer and costs 1/5th the power ) . So if you were going downlights , I'd do 4 downlights per bedroom for example ( you're talking $20 each for reasonable dimmable ones ) BUT add a dimmer per room .

That solves most of Dr Retros objections -- the shadows , the ambience etc , occassionally it is handy to be superbright but most of the time just have them dimmed down .

As far as the rest -- within reason , try and have as many powerpoints and USB sockets as you can per room . I'd consider 12 power points and 4 USB's in a kitchen would be the minimum I would want these days , and 6-8 per bedroom . Even with 1 person in a bedroom , by the time you have a phone or 2 , a tablet , a laptop , a game console , a TV , maybe a desktop computer , a hairdryer plus a spare for vacuum etc -- it is dangerous and confusing unpluggging everything , and unfused multiboxes are dangerous and untidy .

And you may as well have TV and internet to every room too while you are at it -- yes , we are going 'cloud' more and more , but $2k on a new build is hardly noticable , and its done .

Just to be clear, the table on the plan does not include any downlights.
They reference battens which is a fixture you then add your light fitting to as diy. What they have shown is the typical min of one light per room.
You may want two lights over table, or take lighting over benches. Seperate switches for kitchen dining and living are a must, so you can reduce ambient lighting as needed.
Some fixtures you choose may need to be hard wired in, so would need electrician back in to install. This is why it is best to pick all products before signing final contract. Then you know full cost and can avoid extra costs later. Don’t be rushed. Get the lighting and electrical plan right,
With electrical plan consider all needs in bedrooms, kitchen, study living, Etc, data and power point costs add up but are worth it,

@Kate are you saying that the minimum number of lights as shown in the electrical plan is enough? For living, dining, kitchen, hallways, and bedrooms?

I maybe wrong to think this. Add a few more lights, as shown in red marks below. Not too many but at least electrical points will be ready.

Then, maybe after handover, we can choose better quality lights Easy to replace.

also, where is the best placement for kitchen lights to avoid shadows when cooking?

As Kate has said, these are not downlights shown on your plan. These are normal batten lights. Are you saying that you want to install LED downlights in the same position as the batten lights?

i would NOT INSTALL any more lights in the home. Use lamps if required.

the only room I would look at are the dining, maybe total of three LED downlights, and the living a total of three LED downlights. And the kitchen a total of three LED downlights.

photos of LED downlights, and batten lights

@dreamer in the plan, it says batten lights. They’re inclusions so they are most likely standard types.

we are installing pendant lights over kitchen bench.

you suggest changing batten to LED downlights. where do you suggest we place kitchen downlights?

@dreamer we are not installing led lights in the same position as the batten lights. We are trying to figure out how many more lights we need in the family, dining, kitchen, bedrooms and hallways.

hate dark and sad rooms but do not really enjoy harsh and bright lights either.

looking at the plans, we are thinking we probably need more. But a lot of you suggested that we don’t actually need anymore lights and use lamps instead.

@dreamer the inclusion is batten Lights but most likely will be changing them to led downlights

If you get downlights there's the whole matter of being recessed into the roofspace with the insulation and ensuring adequate ventilation to dissipate heat safely.

The old standard one or two batten lights in the middle of each room used to be adequate, apart from in the kitchen because wherever you were working you were blocking the light behind you. So in the kitchen lights above all the work surfaces is necessary. It's not the sort of room where for the most part decorative lighting looks right so downlights work well there. Get professional advice about how many you need, it gets technical with different fittings and how much light they produce and over how wide an arc. Pendants over the kitchen island can be both a functional and decorative feature.

A pendant over the dining table can be a nice decor item too.

I also like the newer trend of having pendant lights beside the bed instead instead of reading lamps sitting on the bedside tables. Or wall lights.

Come to think of it, wall lights can be good in the bathroom too, better for applying makeup.

As others have said, lamps complement ceiling lighting. Don't rely on just the ceiling fittings. That layered effect is what achieves the well lit yet cosy look. Just make sure you have enough power points.

I also hate lots of bright harsh light but you also dont want a living area and hallway that is too dark! In our recent extention on our character home, and after much consideration, we opted to have only downlights (the proper small round LED downlights not batten lights) and no pendants or other ceiling lighting throughout our dining living and hallway areas as it is a large open space to light with very high ceilings. Then we also have a couple of lamps for extra atmospheric lighting in the living room.

We have quite a lot of the LED downlights as they are positioned approx 1.5m apart (so for example in the short hallway has 3, the longer hallway has 5 and the large dining / living area has 12) BUT most importantly we went for LED downlights that had three light settings of 'Warm' 'Cool' and 'Natural' and as we decided on the warm tone this was set at the time of installation. We also got dimmer switches installed. The result is a lovely lighting scheme that we can control and change to our needs, we have the brighter (but still warm) light when we need it but if we want to create a more cosy warm atmosphere we turn down the light via the dimmer switch and it has the soft warm barely there glow of lamp light.

We are really happy with the result as the light is well distributed throughout the areas but as mentioned above can be adapted and softened according to need.

Here is a photo of my suggestion for the lights in the kitchen.

three LED downlights and three pendant batten lights

the pendant lights positioned over the island for task lighting.

Here is my suggestion for the dining room

three LED downlights, installed with a dimmer

positioned across the room in line with kitchen lights.

The living room, either two three or four LED downlights installed with a dimmer.

The family room, either two three or four LED downlights installed with a dimmer.

the rest of the house stay with your batten lights.

Pay attention to the lighting in kitchen and bathrooms. These need to be over the benches and vanity. A light in centre of room casts shadow of person at bench. A small bathroom one light is enough but you need to decide on what light. In my bathroom I have 2 downlights over long vanity to even the light and one over bath on seperate switch so I can change the ambience. In my large powder room I just have a strip light over vanity. If you love makeup then lights each side of mirror is needed for more even light. Don’t underlight the kitchen. I have 2 downlights over island and 3 spread around kitchen and four in dining, With 3 switches creating zones. Would love to have pendants Over bench and dining instead of downlights. My bedroom and lounge had no ceiling light at all, with lamps in lounge and wall lights on side plus a download over wardrobe. I now have a pendant in lounge for decoration but rarely turn it on.
Please go to somewhere like beacon lighting with your plan for advice.

Probably not applicable, but if ceiling fans might be considered in the future it’s good to have some ceiling space near the centre of the room that is well away from lights, to avoid a flickering strobe effect.

Beacon advertise a free plan if you purchase their products, great way to get your whole house lighting sorted.

Ceilings fans are an excellent investment

Purchase the ceiling fan with light in the same unit.

We have never had a problem with a strobing affect with our ceiling fans, which include the light.

Just a note on prices as some previous posts have said approx $20 for led downlight, while that’s probably about right does not take into account an electrician if house is already built but if new build a builder would charge around $50 per downlight(that’s how builders can bump up base price on houses with all the extras)

Wow!!! You are all fantastic!!! Now, i have to read all the responses and I think we will be ready to make a decision by end of this week.

Please bear with me as I go through each response.

Thank you all so much!

My house was built in the 60sand owner was electrician, he made every light in every room torn on and off in multiple locations, they call it 3 way switch I think. This is so good you never here to go to the other end of the room to turn the lights on or off. He also installed power points on the walls every 3 m so we are never short, and 3 way switches for outdoor lights as well, maybe this will help you.

I have those on a couple of lights in my house KK , and I don't really like them , particularly during the day -- you walk into the room , and the switch looks on , you turn it off , the bulbs come on , you turn it back to the on position to turn it off . Then next thing you know , you walk in from the other side , same again .

I've put movement sensing bulbs outside the entrance doors , and down the main hallway -- better IMO .

For bedrooms, it’s good to have two LED down lights diagonally across from each other, with one always closest to the wardrobe.
In the kitchen, one central light will only cast shadows on ever work surface as you try to cut up the vegetables etc. Better to have lights directly over the island bench, and over the kitchen bench. A length of LED strip lights under your overhead cupboards works well to light the bench surface.
Living rooms, tend to go for one in each corner on a dimmer. A feature pendant over the dining table works well.