jkn wrote:
Hi all
Thanks for all your suggestions on this. I thought I'd give you an
update. After going through all of this, and taking the current light
fitting & pullswitch off in preaparation, it was determined by SWMBO
that substantive changes were not going to be made ;-/. I can
understand it actually, there's a lot of domestic upheaval at the
moment and it might have been one straw too many.

So the plasterer is here to basically just reboard the ceiling and skim
it. Somewhat disappointingly, in the course of this it's become
apparent that drilling through one joist only would have been necessary
to have run the extra cabling. The clincher was probably the seeming
lack of double-cord pullswitches. If I'd wanted to change things in
this area I'd have needed to start a bit earlier

to implement your plan later rather than now, all you need do now is
run a not-connected-to-anything cable from the existing pull switch to
your new location above the cupboards, drilling the one joist hole to
route it, taping over the cable end in the switch box, and either
poking it thru the PB above the cupboard, or marking with pencil
exactly where it lies above the PB. For now it does nothing, but later
you can add a 2nd pull switch next to the one there now, fit a light
or socket at the other end, and connect both ends up. Its a simple
thing to do and opens up the best of both worlds, a quick job now and
the expansion option later.


So what I *will* do is see about getting a rather better fluorescent
fitting to replace the current one. Maybe a 'luminaire' like Andy Wade
suggested, or at least I'll investigate these triphospher tubes,
electronic ballast etc.

electronic ballast gives no starting flash and better efficiency,
recommended. Triphosphor tubes I'm not sure theyre so valuable, 3500K
halophosphate are good quality for domestic use. Not all halophosphates
are so good, theyre a variable lot, but 3500K is about as good as they
get for domestic use.


A slight followup - are there benefits to having a two-tube fitting, I
guess in terms of even light distribution etc?

none at all.


NT