Outlets/Switches

I recently had a home maintainence guy replace some outlets in my house. Before he replaced them, one outlet was controlled by a wall switch in order to use floor lighting. After he replaced them, the outlets are no longer switched. Any advice on what to check in order to make them switched again? I have a three wire system, black, white and ground. Thanks!!!

 

The receptacle that was switched, was both the top and bottom outlets switched or just one. Within that receptacle, is there two sets of supply conductors, one switched and the other constant power?
Let us know, then it will help direct the responses.

 

Thanks for the qucik reply. Only one of the receptacles was switched. In the box, there are two supply conductors. One I guess was switched, one was constant for the other receptacle. Thanks again!!!

 

Remove the duplex receptacle and you will see a little twist-off jumper on each side connecting the upper receptacle with the bottom receptacle. Removing both of these jumpers will separate the two receptacles from one another so that one half of the duplex receptacle is fed with the constantly (always) hot feed and the other half is fed from the wall switch.

The electrician was unaware that one set of conductors feeding the receptacle was from a switch. He thought another receptacle (upstream or downstream) was being loop-fed from that particular duplex receptacle.

I hope this helps!

Kooter

 

You probably only need to remove one of the jumpers on the hot side.

 

Actually you probalby only want to remove the tab on the hot side. The hot is the brass side.

 

For saftey and simplicity sake I thought it was better to have him remove both the hot (brass) and neutral (silver) jumpers. You never know when it may have been wired backwards to begin with...

Kooter

 

Everything said is right on but
I'd like to add one thing.....


Turn Off The Circuit Breaker!!

Sometimes we (meaning me!) can get ahead of ourselves...

Don't forget the basics.....

I was working on a circuit I was positive was off... decided to use the voltage meter one more time to make sure.... ooops still hot...

Just me
Curtis

 

True! I almost always do something like changing out switches and receptacles while hot but that is just me however it is best to turn off the power.

On another issue concerning this person's situation, when the electrician changed out this particular receptable in question it "could have" been that the constant (always) hot circuit was from bus "A " (and wired to the top of the receptable lets say) and the switched circuit was from bus "B" (and wired to the bottom of the receptable lets say) creating a short between the two busses. This may have tripped only one of the two circuit breakers feeding these two circuits instead of both "A" and "B" feeds...and/or the main circuit breaker. Further, "if" only the switched feed circuit breaker (bus "B") tripped because of the short the electricain never would have known about it. Likewise, "if" the receptacle had been wired backwards (hot to neutral and neutral to hot) by mistake from one of the two circuits a circuit breaker would have tripped also...having been exposed to a short between busses.

That is another reason I felt it was best to suggest that both jumpers (hot-brass and neutral-silver) be removed to completely separate the two circuits where there is no question about integrity.

Kooter

 

Breaking out the silver-side tab isn't an arbitrary choice. If you break it out when it shouldn't be, or vice versa, the receptacle simply will not work correctly. You must figure out whether you have neutral wires from one circuit or two in that box. 98% of the time, it's only one (and thus you must not break out the tab -- if you do, you'll need to replace it with a jumper).

 

True, but I was basing my statement on a neutral wire for each of the two circuits being in the box, i.e. two romex runs, each with its own hot, neutral and ground conductors.

Kooter

 

Thanks for all of your help. I removed the hot side jumper and it worked. All other receptacles down the line work correctly, so I am assuming everythings ok. Also, the switch now works as promised.



Thanks again!!!!