Hello,

(This question lands somewhere between the wiring and lighting categories.)

I'd like to have a better understanding of a wiring/lighting situation in my 86-year old home.

Many years ago I removed a large track light system installed by the prior owners. It had giant incandescent spotlight bulbs. It worked well, but was too large for my tastes. I replaced it with a low voltage track fixture that took halogen bulbs. Over the years, the individual light fixtures/transformers failed quite often. So, I replaced that system with another - supposedly "better" - brand of low voltage fixture, also halogen bulbs (see pic). It too has had the light fixtures fail more quickly than seems 'normal' - aside from one light, they have a life from as short as 2 months to about 1 year. The track is on a dimmer (not sure if it's a low voltage dimmer - but there is no apparent buzzing which I read is one way to know that it's the 'wrong' kind - ???).

A few months ago an electrician explored the wiring and said that we have a two-wire junction box here, not 3 (the 3rd is a ground wire, yes?), and that I should only buy two-wire fixtures, and ones that don't have transformers on the base of each light (so, no low voltage light), AND, he said just to have a track that is only meant for incandescent bulbs. Phew.

Does this sound kosher? I understand the "no low voltage" part, but it's very difficult to find nice looking line voltage track kits that take incandescent bulbs. Does anyone think that I could just stick with a line voltage but one that uses, say, PAR30 bulbs (halogen, I think)?

As you can see in the pic, the junction box is near a beam, so I have to get the kind of track that allows for flexible placement of the canopy - not the fixed/centered kind.

The wiring is deep inside thick lath and plaster walls, and would be a bear to change out.

Many thanks!