I haven't had much luck using overhead lights for task lighting. They are never in the right spot and don't provide bright enough light for me. I use an Ott light for my reading, crafting and computer work.

OK Thorn,
I am an electrician among other things and there is a reason that both the electrical and plumbing trades are licenced. You can die on the job. In New South Wales Australia in 2000, while one cop died in the line of duty, getting a bridge and car named after him, a state funeral and a full pension for his widow, eight electricians also died on the job. They got nothing.
Installing a ceiling light is not as simple as you would have it be. If you are in a standard Californian Bungalow (brick & tile - single level residence), then usually, the installation will take a day for two people. This is the easiest installation.
My advice to you is that first thing first. Get your insurance up to date and your Will prepared and signed by a JP. Secondly, get an eye check. Make sure your not colour blind. An error in connecting the wrong wires can have a deadly effect. A man had an old metal drill and an old extension lead. He replaced the plug on the lead when he ran over it with his car a couple of months before he wanted to install a ceiling light. He needed to drill a hole in the timber to get the cable to the spot he wanted to put the switch. He went into the ceiling and didn't come out again. He lived alone and his body wasn't found for three days.
I'm pretty sure that your landlord would draw the line at you doing electrical work as his/her insurance wouldn't cover it. If you are injured or killed doing renovations on his/her property, then he/she goes to gaol (jail). And just to add insult to injury, your insurance may not pay up as you were performing an illegal act at the time of your death and your parents may be hit with the bill. So check with them if it's OK.
Working with electricity is like having an invisible pet crocodile, the chances of you surviving a bight from it is fifty/fifty at best.
Electricity and gas is for professionals. Under no circumstances touch it. It will kill you and the death is not instantaneous.
And finally, conduit work in an apartment is NOT an improvement.

It's not rocket science. I've done all the electrical renovation on all the homes I've owned.
Have you googled around? There's shit loads of pictorial tutorials on the web.
I'd take that route first as it helps top have a visual of what you need to do.
While you are at it you might want to run a whole new breaker circuit for the PC and the lamp.

My Fiance is an electrician, and I can guarantee that is doesn't take a day and two electricians to put in a ceiling fan. Although as an 'amateur' getting someone to help isn't a bad idea, you might need someone to hold up the fan while you are securing it to the ceiling.

I am sure that you can do it Thorn, you've already mentioned the most important part...turn the breakers off. But I do have a comment: one ceiling fan most likely will not solve your lighting problem. It's a great source for overall lighting, but if you plan to do any 'projects' in the room you most likely will still need your lamps. Some ceiling fans come with clear-like covers for the light, which offer more direct lighting, but overall they just give a nice glow to the room. Another option is can lights, or recessed lighting. These offer more direct lightening and offer a solution to 'shadow' problems that can happen when a single fixture is located in the middle of the room causing your body to shadow over the 'project'. These are not hard either, just takes more time.

There are only a few times electrical work gets tricky, some include: replacing breakers, rewiring through out the house or in places such as the kitchen where there are many large items that might be working at the same time.

Go for it!

It is fairly simple to put in a ceiling light.

the problem is making it look like a real electrician did it, so make sure you do a sloppy job as if it is too neat, it will be spotted a mile off. BTDT.

In Australia, ceiling lights generally, AFAIK, run off a separate circuit with the live feed jumping from light socket to light socket, at the light socket, the supply neutral is wired in and the supply active is fed into a dual core that runs to and from the light switch, then the switched active is wired into the socket(s0 you are switching.

Yes, we have lots of regs in Australia, but that doesn't save people from bad wiring installed by electricians, but if a lcensed (state revenue) electrician does it, then whatever happens, you are covered by your insurance.

BTW, I live near that bridge named after the cop. Nothing special, come to Campbelltown, get killed and have something named after you. A town of total loser further cements is reputation by naming public features after total non-entities.

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Hey Thorn a little harsh on gerard there.

you asked for advice. you got advice.
what I read, was his advice to use caution.

caution is never a bad thing.
whether he overstated it is up to interpretation.
BUT... how irresponsible would it be of this board (as a collective) to not have a voice of caution expressing itself?
or for us to shun it, it try to shut it down, or to embarrass it into not speaking again?

Honestly, when it comes to the issues of electricity, I never post advice here, cause you don't know what kind of ying-yang-yahoo might be asking for it?
they might go and get themselves hurt.
a little bit of knowledge is a bad thing right?


Anyway... thats the thing with advice...
we don't *have* to listen to it... and often... when we ask for advice we only accept what we feel good about... what we already expect to hear... no?
so, when we really want to do something... and we get advice from someone who says you shouldn't do it... *THEY* are just an idiot...



...jus my opinion, and I am perfectly comfortable being wrong if it turns out that way...



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