Convert 3-bulb light from hardwired to plug

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Zannej

All electrical wiring devices are divided into indoor and outdoor use and these systems are indoor usage. Bathrooms are fine and should be to code and GFCI protected. You don’t need a plug with this stuff. They have extenders and such that bring the current boxes out away from the wall so the channel that holds the wires clips in. the only place you might have to get creative is with your light fixture it mounts to a box and I don’t know if you would want it spaced out or if the back of the fixture has enough depth to cover the box. If it does you might have to cut a notch in the side of the base for the track with a dermal tool or something.

You see this stuff a lot in condos where the ceiling is poured floor above and someone wants a ceiling fan or something. I have used it several time for adding a ceiling light off another where I couldn’t get in the ceiling.

It was just a thought anyway as you said you can’t open the walls.

Above all else get that short fixed if you are getting shocked! Nothing to mess around with.
 
Thanks, Bud.
Its not the walls that are the main issue, its he attic access. I could open a small hole in the wall even though its not the ideal situation. I could probably even just cut the panel all around the vanity off and then caulk around when I put it back up and then put on some cove molding or something. The next homeowners will probably want to get rid of the paneling since its seen better days, but I've inexplicably grown fond of it. The problem is that I currently don't have a way to get in to my attic to run the wire to it.

I hope I'm making sense. I'm a bit braindead from having to deal with FedEx and their BS.
 
I'm a bit braindead from having to deal with FedEx and their BS.

Try UPS.
When I tried to tell them what service I wanted they pretended not to understand and played a shell game with me that left me exhausted. Next time I will pretend to be mute and just point to what I want on a piece of paper, again and again if necessary.
Their marching orders must be upsell, upsell, upsell and I guess the same with the USPS.
 
I've had more trouble with FedEx ground than with UPS. But then, we became rather friendly with our old UPS driver. He would sometimes see us in town and say "Thank God!" and bring us a package or he would just stop to say "Hi" and ask how were were doing. He gave condolences when my father died. He also thanked us for letting him drop the packages off at a friend's house so he wouldn't have to drive out on our bumpy unpaved road. Sadly the friends no longer live at that house and they have a new driver.

Anyway, it turns out that the people in Lake Charles printed up a map sticker and stuck it on the package showing my address in the middle of an intersection somewhere that wasn't even in the right Parish (County) much less the right town. When I gave instructions to the driver and then to the people at his "base" they realized where the area was. I wasn't able to wait at home as I had to go pick up my housemate from work. So the driver called and my brother told him I was at Pizza Hut and described the car. While I was waiting for my friend to come out, an exhausted guy drenched in sweat walked up and said he was "the Fedex guy" and he had my package. When I saw the map I said "WTF? No wonder you got lost!"
I'm going to have to e-mail Fedex a map or something bc I don't know how they thought that my house was in Evangeline Parish. They couldn't have google mapped it?
 
I know this is an old thread and I've been necroing a few threads, but I noticed the pictures are gone from the thread and don't know how to get them back. But, after studying electrical a bit more, I had an idea and wanted to run it by people.
If I cut the wall paneling around the vanity to access the electrical (and to add vents to the currently s-trapped plumbing), I could see how the GFCI outlet is wired. When I first made this post, I wrongly assumed that every single outlet and fixture had to have it's own separate wires running to the circuit breaker. I realize that doesn't make sense for anyone who knows squat about breakers. LOL. Anyway, I saw some examples of people wiring where they put wires into an outlet box and then had more wires running from that outlet box to another box or to a fixture. It made me wonder: If my current outlet box is the end one and doesn't continue to another outlet or fixture, can I add new wire that ties in to that box, run it inside the walls up to where I want my light fixture, and hook the light fixture up to it?
If the old paneling can't go back on, I can replace it or cover it with beadboard.
Additionally, I plan to add a rocker switch for the vanity light next to the outlet. If I'm not mistaken, a GFCI outlet is about the same size/shape as a rocker switch so it would fit under a 2-gang rocker wall plate. I got some wall plates on clearance. Hooray.
I have the general idea of how the wires would need to connect to continue from the GFCI box to the light, but I'm not certain about how to tie in the light switch. Would I take the main wires coming from power, tie them in to the outlet, connect them to the outgoing wires, run the outgoing wires to the switch, and then run the wires from the switch to the light? (I realize I'd have to replace the existing 1-gang box with a 2-gang).
I found a sketch online at https://www.do-it-yourself-help.com/wiring-two-outlets-one-box.html:
switch-outlet-one-box.gif
Would probably be using 3 wires including ground instead of 2 wires?
Does any of this make sense?
I'm attaching a sketch of my plans for the bathroom-- the outlet & switch are on the right side of the drawing.
myensuitesketch4.png
I'll have to do a better drawing of a closeup of that area-- and I need to get on making the medicine cabinet. LOL.
Anyway, I hope what I'm asking is clear. If not, I can try to abridge things.
 
It won't let me edit, but I found another diagram. I admit I'm not familiar enough with wiring diagrams to really grasp what is going on. I'm guessing the green line that ends in a dot is a ground?

Am I correct that this shows the wiring so that the switch does NOT control the power to the GFCI outlet?
gfci-switch-same-box.gif
 
It won't let me edit, but I found another diagram. I admit I'm not familiar enough with wiring diagrams to really grasp what is going on. I'm guessing the green line that ends in a dot is a ground?

Am I correct that this shows the wiring so that the switch does NOT control the power to the GFCI outlet?
View attachment 20423
Yes green is ground the gfci is different than other outlets because the white also goes to this outlet to the line screws. From there the white can go thru to the light and the black to the switch and then to the light. You might need a deeper box for more cu inches for this. And yes the outlet and the switch are independent of each other because you are taking black separately to each.
 
Thanks, Neal. Now it makes sense. Maybe I was just tired but it looked like gibberish to me. I think the colors threw me off. The gray=white! Lightbulb came on in my head.

IIRC, white is neutral, black is hot, and green/bare is ground. I'll have to see what I'm working with when I have the power shut off and look inside the box. The outlet is on an exterior wall so it should have room for a deeper box. I want to use the wago lever nuts to secure the wires rather than trying to mess with the twist-on things. Looks like I'd need two with 3 ports & one with 5 ports (and that's if the outlet isn't a junction to another one down the line).
 
This is about a different light & wiring situation, but I wanted to confirm that I have the idea right. I want to get a triplex rocker outlet to control a NuTone Vent-a-Lite. It is a light, fan/vent, and heater in one. We've had it for almost 20 years or more (can't remember when we bought it) & it's just sitting in a box. I'll have to look at the wiring and instructions on it, but I found this wiring diagram for the switch.
LSwitch.jpg
Just to make sure I understand it correctly- the hot comes in from the source and attaches to the side. Then 3 hots come out to feed the individual functions of the light/fan/heater. That much is obvious.
Now, for the white (neutral), they would come in from the source in to the box, then have a wire nut tether the source wire to 3 additional neutral wires that would individually go out to the light/fan/heater?
As for the ground, would I connect the wire from the source and the wire from the light together and then connect to the ground part of the switch?
I've been trying to find good pictures of real applications for this, but haven't found anything.
 
This is the wiring diagram from the Nutone fixture. Sorry it is so fuzzy. Camera decided to refocus as I was trying to take the picture.
nutonewiring.jpg
It it's not clear, I can try to get a better pic. It's Nutone 665RP and I think it was made in 1998.
Nutonewiring2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top