Based in part on comments by Neon John, I went and looked at 12V cold
cathode tubes (and discovered the really weird concept of "hot-rodding"
a PC, which I'm afraid looks just stooo-pid). Anyway, the units sold for
that seems to be generally cheaper than the ones sold for lighting up
the underside of cars (also stooo-pid, IMHO), although a light-meter
comparison might be worthwhile (to check watts in .vs. light out and
figure out which is better on that front). Supposed draw is 3.5 watts or
so, I have yet to hook up an ammeter and check them. They start a little
slow (well, they light right up, but take a while to get to full
brightness). 2 12 inch (30cm) long tubes and a 12V inverter to drive
them at 600+ volts for 8 bucks or so, if you shop around. Supposed to
have 30,000 hour life. White and many colors, though some vendors carry
very few colors; get the bug-lite yellow for the outside door, and put a
black-light one somewhere else to draw the bugs away?