[emeritus]

When you say they are on their last legs, do you mean they are reluctant to strike? I used to have this problem with my kitchen and shed fluorescents at the onset of winter when the rooms were unheated, but fixed it by wiping the tubes with Silicone furniture polish. After buying some new tubes that behaved exactly the same as the apparently faulty ones, I remembered having read in an old textbook that fluorescent tubes for Europe had a Silicone coating to ensure reliable starting under the humid conditions found in Europe. The improvement was dramatic, and even the tube in the garden shed that used to be unusable in winter until I had had the heater running now comes on first time regardless of the temperature.