Outlets and light switches

[Flyover]

One room in my new house has exactly one outlet, and it's controlled by the light switch. I don't want it to be.

Another room in my house has exactly one light (in the ceiling fan) and it isn't controlled by the light switch. I want it to be.

Is there a straightforward way to fix these issues?

 

[Snoonyb]

In the room with the switched outlet, that conforms to the code requirement that you have to be able to illuminate any room you enter, within 6' of the entry.

In the other room you'll need to provide a switch leg, via wiremold or through the attic and down a stud bay.

 

[Flyover]

The room with the switched outlet already has a ceiling-mounted light that comes on with the switch.

I don't know what a switch leg or wiremold are. A stud bay is the space between wall studs, if I remember right. I mean, that tells me some of the terms I'll need to look up on DuckDuckGo, but not how to do what I need to do.

 

[Snoonyb]

The room with the switched outlet already has a ceiling-mounted light that comes on with the switch.

When you tell a story, it's really helpful, when you tell the whole story.

I don't know what a switch leg or wiremold are. A stud bay is the space between wall studs, if I remember right. I mean, that tells me some of the terms I'll need to look up on DuckDuckGo, but not how to do what I need to do.

RE: the switched recep., is it half switched or are both recep. of that duplex recep. controlled by the switch? Because it is a "convenience recep.", the convenience may be so that a lamp plugged into it could be extinguished without having to get up from a convenient position and walking over to extinguish the light at the wall switch.

A switch leg is a trade term for the method that an elec. fixture is controlled from a switch, IE. you light fixtures and the switched recep.

 

[Flyover]

I checked and both recepticles are controlled by the switch.

 

[Flyover]

Let's focus on the switched outlet for now. One good thing about this is it's in a lower level room with a drop ceiling, which I plan to eventually remove. (Exposed beams are cool!) Hopefully this means I will have easy access to the wiring, at least overhead...

PS. @Snoonyb Like I said, the switch controls both the overhead light fixture AND the wall outlet. There should be no need to control a plugged-in lamp from the switch since it already controls the overhead light.

 

[JoeD]

You need to pull the receptacle out and tell the wiring.

 

[Snoonyb]

I guess it's just a matter of semantics, you see, I would have said, the same switch, which reduces the ambiguity to "0".

 

[Flyover]

@JoeD Pulled out the switch and got a photo:

That was about as far as it seemed to want to go. Does that tell you anything useful?

 

[Snoonyb]

If you turn the breaker off, that controls that circuit and rotate the recep. 180 degrees, counterclockwise, you can pull the recep. out so that the wiring is further exposed.

 

[Flyover]

I'm kinda doing this between meetings...if I get a chance maybe this weekend I'll do it.

 

[user 4883]

In the room with the switched outlet, that conforms to the code requirement that you have to be able to illuminate any room you enter, within 6' of the entry.

In the other room you'll need to provide a switch leg, via wiremold or through the attic and down a stud bay.

I don't believe "switchlegs" are code anymore. You'll have to bring both hot&neutral to the switch box and then run from there. Looking at the outlet, I believe your already set in the switchbox. Run 14/3 from the switch box to the outlet (1/2 switched, 1/2 constant), then run up the ceiling with one hot for the light in the ceiling fan and the other hot for the fan blade motor. You might be able to find a switch where you don't have to enlarge the switch box. A double horizontal switch should fit in the switchbox.

 

[afjes_2016]

Can you see if there is only one cable in the receptacle box?

Where ever the receptacle is being feed from it has a neutral. If it is being fed from the ceiling box and the ceiling box is being fed from the switch box (not a switch loop) then there is no way to make this receptacle stay on when the switch is turned off.

If the receptacle is being feed from the ceiling light box and the ceiling light is controlled by a switch loop then there is a constant hot and constant neutral in the light fixture box. Rewiring the cable to the receptacle should not be a problem then. Should not require running anything in the walls. And this is why the receptacle is hot for both top and bottom as there is no other cable in the box to feed it hot constant only what it gets from the light box. So there should be only one cable in this receptacle box.

This sounds like an older home to me since there is only one receptacle in the room. Most of the times in an older home I have found that the power comes into the room thru the ceiling and then down to the receptacle/s and a switch loop to the switch for the light. Chances are the power comes from the ceiling light fixture box.

A quick way to tell is to open the switch box (of course with the power off). If there is only one cable in there (black and white wire) then this is a switch loop and should be able to rewire the receptacle to stay on from the ceiling light box.

But before you attempt to rewire anything we need to know what is in the receptacle box and switch box in the way of cables/wires.

 

[JoeD]

It appears there is only one cable coming into the receptacle box. That means you need to make the change at the switch to make the receptacle unswitched.

 

[Bob Reynolds]

We need to see the other side of the outlet with the black wire.

 

[afjes_2016]

We need to know first where the power is coming from.

Three different scenarios are possible - if you have #3 you can't make the change without running new cable. If #2 or #1 or can make a change by rewiring what is there.

#1
If the power is coming from the light switch box and there is a cable going from the light switch box to the light fixture and another one from the light switch box going to the receptacle then the change can be made at the light switch box.

#2
If the power is coming from the light fixture box and a cable going down to the receptacle box and a switch loop then the change has to be made at the light fixture box.

#3
If the power is coming from the light switch box and only one cable going up to the light fixture box and then from there down to the receptacle you can't make a change. The only hot going to the light fixture is the switched hot from the switch box.

I'm still on my first cup of coffee this morning so if I missed something let me know people but I think I got it.

 

[Flyover]

House was built in 1978. In my mind that's pretty new, but my mind isn't typical so I'll leave it up to you guys whether this makes it an "older house".

I'll try and do this investigating if I get a chance. I might just hire someone.

I do plan on taking out at least a few of the drop ceiling panels soon, so I should be able to see what's going on.

 

[Flyover]

Turns out there's another receptacle in the ceiling! But same deal: all 4 outlets are controlled by the wall switch.


Other side:

 

[JoeD]

The light switch has two cables? Then the only way is to run a new cable from the light switch. You need a three wire cable instead of a two wire cable.

 

[Flyover]

The switch has one cable. (If I understand right?) The second photo just shows the reverse side of that box. In the second photo the cable coming from the switch is not readily visible.