Linked lighting render problems

[LP Design]

Hello all,

I'm having an issue rendering with a linked electrical model. Here's a draft image of an outside patio where I am trying to render with sun and artificial lights. Obviously the can lights aren't working for some reason.
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A few points regarding this issue:
1. the can lights are supposed to be in the ceiling, the MEP guys haven't bothered to check that yet. (Some of the cans are upside down...) Regardless, there shouldn't be any light-behind-ceiling conflicts.
2. I checked the light family and the lens is set to a transparent material, so that isn't an issue.
3. This image was rendered using the cloud because locally it is trying to render all 875 lights in the 3-story facility. I can't mess with the light groups since they are in a linked model. I actually don't know how long it takes to run a local render because I always give up and stop it. Even on a thumbnail size draft it lags at 10% complete and doesn't move for 7-8 minutes. Here's a screen cap of the settings:
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I found a thread over on RevitCity talking about solving issues like this by linking into a completely new model but that's not an option in my case because I would loose months worth of work.
http://www.revitcity.com/forums.php?action=viewthread&thread_id=30914

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
-LP

[LP Design]

Update: I tried linking the electrical model into a blank project (just 4 walls a floor and a roof) just to see what would happen and the lights did in fact show up. This is another cloud render for the same reason as above.
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[LP Design]

Update update: I figured out some of the issues, but not everything.

1. The artificial lights ARE on, but they contribute so little to the overall light levels that revit practically ignores them. Another RevitCity thread on the issue in case anyone has a similar problem: http://www.revitcity.com/forums.php?action=viewthread&thread_id=11362. Unfortunately knowing the problem doesn't mean I have a solution... Is there any way to change the sun levels rather than edit all light fixtures to be 200 times brighter than normal?

2. I was able to solve the 875 lights issue by using a section box and this trick: http://revitlearningclub.blogspot.com/2011/03/section-boxes-in-perspective-views.html. I will now use this trick for ALL of my renderings FOREVER.

-LP