Don’t know the length of your room, but could you install a 2 or 4-light 8-foot long Led fixture with one end either replacing or butting up to the existing round light and use single or double ended 8-foot bulbs? If you leave the existing round light but need it to look symmetrical, you could add another round fixture at the far end of the 8-foot led fixture. That’d give you at least 10 linear feet of light and those led bulbs are bright! Additional power for led bulbs are minimal and you could connect everything to the existing round fixture and hide any holes made in the ceiling to do so with the fixtures themselves. Something like O———————-O. Doesn’t answer your question, but just an idea.

Thanks for the suggestion, tsmccull, but, that sounds kind of cluttered.

I'm going to stick with running the wire out to the ends and back to where I want my fixtures. Only have to decide if I'm comfortable with NM laying atop that air return duct or whether to deal with the expense and small additional hassle of MC.

I tend to over-build and go for safety first, so I may well go with MC.

The thing is, Skins, who is a master electrician with a whole career of experience, has already given you the answer that it is perfectly fine to use NM-B for the job. Just wondering what answer you really want.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The thing is, Skins, who is a master electrician with a whole career of experience, has already given you the answer that it is perfectly fine to use NM-B for the job.

And which, as I've said already, twice, is the answer with which I"m going.

He also wrote: "If there is a possibility of physical damage to the cabling either from pulling it or from sharp metal vibrating when unit turns on or off use common sense."

It only remains for me to decide if those are possibilities.