You can buy the battery operated candles at Bed,Bath & Beyond, A.C. Moore's, Michael's, Plow & Hearth and they are wonderful. That is all we use anymore in our house. We live in a Sr. Citizens community and about 3 yrs. ago there was a bad fire in a garden apt. one windy Jan. night started by a plastic coffee maker being put on a burner that was on by mistake. A man lost his death because he went back into his first floor apt. to get some important papers and the ceiling from the apt. on fire fell on him and killed him. They had to tear the entire building down and rebuild it. Every since then, we only use the battery operated ones. They have some that are scented and the outside feels like real wax. They have a lot of hours of use, something like 100 or 500 before you have to replace the batteries. They are LED lights. Candles that come in lots of colors plus white and off white.

Hi, OP here with an update... With regard to ronnatalie's question... yes, it did seem that one of the other light fixtures on the same breaker had some trouble even when the fluorescent light in the kitchen was off. Not quite a flicker, but the bulb (an incandescent, NOT a CFL) was slow to turn on (had previously tried changing the bulb and that didn't help). But now, here's the update... my nephew came over and replaced the ballast on the kitchen fixture and that definitely seems to have helped. I don't know for sure yet if it has fixed all of the "flickering" since I haven't been over to the house myself to test out some of what I had observed (I live about 2 1/2 hours away), but I am hoping that all will be good when I get there next time. If not, I'll post another update. Thanks for your thoughts!

I don't see any reason it will hurt the switches, and I doubt that it will hurt the fluorescent lamps either, but it certainly sounds annoying. What's happening is that the neon lamps start to conduct at about 90 volts. This voltage is appearing across the ballast with each cycle of the AC mains. The ballast tries to start. But the neon lamp can't pass much current, so the voltage falls to zero and the ballast quits. Then the cycle repeats, ad infinitum. You might find that a small incandescent light in parallel with the fluorescent is enough to make the neon lamps happy and stop the flickering. A 4-7 watt night light, or an even smaller indicator lamp, should be enough. I haven't tried this, though, so I won't guarantee that it will work.

Get a different electrician. Something is wrong with the new setup, or there exists a return path other than the return wire. It is true that kitchen, bath, and outside circuits should have GFI circuit breakers, but I don't think they have to be on the same circuit! Each circuit needs protection by GFI, but each circuit may have its own GFI. Doubling up of outlets (not circuits) served by one GFI was done in the past as a cost saving measure. In my house, one outside outlet and the powder room is served by the GFI in the powder room, however, this is only one circuit. My house was wired in 1976. But care must be exercised in the layout to not create potential overloading of any one circuit. I expect codes have changed since then. At that date, GFIs were a new item. The general rule was that GFIs were required in locations where shock hazards were most common. Most of the locations were where one might touch a grounded item and a damaged or mis-wired appliance at the same time. Examples are: an electric fry pan and a metal kitchen sink or faucet; electric shaver and bathroom faucet; a radio dropped in the bath tub; and outside, a faulted device with the user making circuit to earth or a piece of plumbing; etc. Under these rules, places such as living rooms and bedrooms were exempt. However, local authorities may add additional requirements. The instructions for GFIs often state that these should not be used in series. For example, there could be a GFI circuit breaker in the main entrance box that is serving a bathroom circuit, but another small GFI was installed inadvertently in an outlet box in the bathroom in the same circuit. This would be two GFIs in series. If you are located in an incorporated municipality, very likely there is a building inspector and a permit is required to make major wiring installations. If this is the case, your building inspector can be an Allie in getting this situation corrected. In regard to the buzzing sound, have you determined the source? Is it a transformer in an LED fixture that is part of the power supply for the light? Transformers do present design problems and are prone to buzzing. Cheaply or poorly made transformers can be noisy. If this is the source of your noise, the solution is to replace the transformers with better ones, or get better fixtures.