Springka's Profile

Interesting question, as a Lighting Designer I can tell you LED advancement in the last year alone has been amazing and commercially we are using LED quite confidently now.

LED retrofit lamps are still a step behind dedicated LED light fixtures however if you know what to look for in a lamp you can certainly save a fair amount in energy.

LED's still get hot but not as hot as MR16's do, and yes they are designed to throw light out the back, and yes- it's possible you could need a new dimmer (all things you will have to test out along the way)

To add to the confusion-the unit of measure of intensity of a halogen MR16 is different than that of an LED so it's a little like comparing apples and oranges. From my understanding though- the larger manufacturers (listed below) are still only making a 20w MR16 equivalent. Depending on what you are lighting this may not be an issue for you, but I do not know the application well enough to advise.

My suggestion- stick with reputable companies like GE, Philips, Osram Sylvania who have thoroughly tested their products and conformed with the strictest LED standards.

I hope this helps.

I don't live in NY so you would have to find a local upholstery store, or even fabric showroom but as an Interior Designer I like to use Kravet http://www.kravet.com/ and Robert Allen http://www.robertallendesign.com/ Both manufacturers have a wide variety of price points but the joy is you can search by color/style/use and then jot down the numbers and start calling around to find a good price or order a sample.
I hope that helps!