Intro - Checklist - Prep - Rough In & Box Placement - Stud Preparation - Wire Installation - Terminal Placement - Wire Connection I - Wire Connection II - Fixtures & Outside Wiring - Track Lighting - Wiring Extensions - Breaker Box
Margin of Error: Exact
Splitting a receptacle on a push terminal. Three cables (nine separate wires) come into the outlet box. One cable supplies power directly from the breaker box, another cable carries that power on to other receptacles or outlets, and the third cable comes from a wall-mounted switch so that half of that receptacle will be controlled by that switch. This type of connection, which divides an outlet, can only be done in a middle of the run installation, not at a receptacle at the beginning or end. It is particularly used in bedrooms where you may want to control a lamp with a wall switch while still being able to plug in an alarm clock. Either the upper or the lower socket always remains hot, while the other is controlled by a switch.
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The white wire within the cable that goes to the switch will be made hot, so it must be marked with black electrical tape at the outlet box, to distinguish it from the other neutral (white) wires. This same "hot white" wire should also be marked with black tape up at the switch.
Pigtail all of the same-colored wires together, as previously described, omitting the white wire that is marked with black tape.
Hook up the pigtail ground wire to the ground screw on the receptacle, and the pigtail neutral wire to the silver side. (If it is a metal box, use two ground pigtail wires one grounded to the receptacle and the second to connect onto the box grounding screw.) The hot pigtail wire goes into the permanently hot (lower) side. The white wire marked with black tape goes into the hot outlet side upper or lower, depending on which socket you wish to control with the switch.
Breaking the tab on the hot side linking the two brass terminals of the outlet will allow half of the receptacle to work off of a switch, while the other half receives continuous power.
Wiring two push terminal switches. If your box and your switches are plastic, connect all grounding wires with a wire nut and push into box. When using metal boxes, pigtail all of the bare ground wires together with three separate pigtail wires. Then connect one pigtail wire to the grounding screw in the box, and the other two to the separate grounding screws on the switches. A switch should never be connected to neutral wires. So join all of the white wires together with a wire nut and push them back into the box. Then pigtail the hot wires together.
Since a switch interrupts the flow of electrical current, it should only be connected to hot (black) wires; or, in this case, a white wire marked with black electrical tape designating it to be hot. On the first switch, push the hot pigtail wire Into either push terminal, and push the color-coded hot wire that goes to the overhead light into the push terminal of this same switch. On the second switch, push the black hot wire, which was pigtailed to the other black wires at the outlet, and the white wire wrapped in black tape into the back of the switch. This white wire will be made hot when the switch is turned on and will take the electrical power to the controlled outlet.
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