Hey all,
I recently bought a home that has a lot of outlets that are operated by switches. I think I know how to rewire, but wanted to ask people who more than think they know. I also know this has been posted on here before but I wanted to include my own pictures.
in the below picture, the red wires are wired into the bottom outlet. They are also connected with a wire nut to a black wire. One red wire is a pigtail that goes into the bottom outlet and the other one goes to a wire that I assume is heading to the next outlet.
The corresponding white wire is connected to two black wires with a wire nut. One of these black wires is a pigtail that is wired into the outlet. The other black wire also heads to the next outlet.
From what I can tell, it would be easier to run the new overhead light wires to the outlet. I would like to make the outlets always hot, and the new overhead light switch operated. What do you do with the red wires? I believe they would be excess at this point. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
(No, I did not paint this room. It was like this when we bought it, and yes, I will be painting as soon as I get the new light installed.😊
Thank you for your response. The switch is indeed two wires - white and black (and a ground to nowhere).
There are more outlets powered by the switch (4 additional outlets and the one that has the original picture). Ideally, all of these would be hot all the time.
Last edited by TrassaE95; 07-02-21 at 04:27 AM.
Reason: Adding additional info
That should be a newer switch with a ground screw on it.
Your conversion is very easy.
Connect all three white wires together and a short tail of white to go to receptacle.
Connect all three black wires and red wire together. Use black tail to go to receptacle. (already in place)
This will make all receptacles live all the time.
It will send hot and neutral to that switch. At the switch.... black stays on the switch.
White gets removed from the switch and will now be the neutral.
Thanks again for the quick reply! I plan on replacing all of the existing outlets. It is certainly time for an upgrade. Would I still need the red wires at all?
Okay. So I have only been working on this all day... so I hope my idea passes all electrical guidelines. In order to feel Okay with everything I need a second opinion before I just try and attach everything. Which I am still working out in my head. So the junction box is huge compared to my new Hampton Bay 3-Light Track Fixture. It was an oh so over used "boob" light which explains the large junction box I guess?
I figured if I cut a piece of wood in a circle to cover the junction box and then cut a smaller hole out of that to fit the fixture plate that'd be fine, right? I'll add pictures so you won't have to guess at my crazy plan. I am no electrician to say the least. Picture 1: my crazy plan of a wood circle to attach to junction box opening (with new fixture plate attached). Picture 2: Junction box.
If that is all fine and dandy (the junction box opening being closed with mostly wood). Then my next problem is this. All I was thinking about was closing this hole. Not attaching it later. I know... way to go me! But I have these really long screws (pic 3) that I could maybe drill into these little slit openings (pic 4) in the junction box? Or is that a no go? Or I have this metal bracket thing (pic 5) that came off the other light. Maybe I could cut it in half and use it on either side of my wood piece to attach it... then I'd have to spackle over it all and it'd look ridiculous. I don't know what to do! Help!
And as if that wasn't enough... the old light had this metal curly spring thing (pic 6) attached to the junction box which was attached to the ground of the old fixture. It kinda just came out with the fixture so it wasn't really doing a whole lot of good anyways. Am I good just attaching the new fixture ground to the screw on the metal plate and not to the junction box? Even if the metal plate isn't making contact with the junction box because of my crazy wood circle plan?
[img]https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/img_20210627_201443_18a32639b422a62621f069010e61b3370dfdb9f2.jpg[/img]
[i]Picture 1[/i]
[img]https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/img_20210627_201453_bcd9d8e2f9f0264c118c220bd5a0e551a3d6d962.jpg[/img]
[i]Picture 2[/i]
[img]https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/img_20210627_201522_1de831500e112c570ee58343eb53729561ecf097.jpg[/img]
[i]Picture 3[/i]
[img]https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/img_20210627_201553_1b7f3b8e76ae736549aaae1004058a3a9ee5ca76.jpg[/img]
[i]Picture 4[/i]
[img]https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/img_20210627_201614_5b4eb95b79c7f2cb7bfa1eddd1d59d30485d4ba6.jpg[/img]
[i]Picture 5[/i]
[img]https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1504/img_20210627_201727_a9c82d3b3dcc26d2aacdffab68b25087495f8475.jpg[/img]
[i]Picture 6[/i]
I feel like I've wasted an entire day. Please give me good news...
So, I'm an addict to smart home stuff. I like the smart switches when I use frequently and too lazy to get up to switch it. I want to switch one light to a smart switch. But, the problem with it is it's in a bank of switches where there are two sideways light switches on the left side then 3 light switches to the right of the 2 vertical switches. If I switch the one light to a smart switch, I would need to change the last switch in the switch plate to the rectangle opening. I can't find a switch plate that has the two vertical on the left, two horizonal normal openings for light switches then a big rectangle opening on the right for the smart switch.
07-01-21, 06:10 PM
