I live in a house where none of the rooms have light fixtures in the ceilings, all of our rooms have to lamps plugged in to the wall outlet and 1 of those outlets is controlled by the light switch. I would like to change this so that when I turn on the switch I can turn on a light fixture in the ceiling, pretty much to update my house. Should I or can I get power from an outlet or wall switch and how can I do this? Any picture diagrams would help me tremendously!!
2007-01-27 16:30:07 · 8 answers · asked by Paul L 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
The work can be done from the switch, if the hot and neutral of the circuit is going to the switch first, then the neutrals will be wirenutted together and the hot will go thru the switch to the wall outlet, a romex from the switch to the new ceiling box can be ran for the new light fixture. If the switch is getting the hot from the wall outlet then the wires going to the switch will not be able to complete the circuit, cause only the hot is being switched at the switch; hot in and load out to the wall outlet. Then you would need to run your new romex from the wall outlet and use the neutral there to complete the circuit. You said that one of those is switched on your outlet, so it sounds like half of your wall outlet is switched and half is hot all the time. In this case it sounds like the wall outlet is feeding the switch so you should run your circuit from the wall outlet and use the switched side of the wall outlet for your circuit to the new ceiling fixture. In either case a licensed and certified electrician should be seriously considered for the work.
2007-01-27 17:34:06 · answer #1 · answered by ron dawg 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Power may not be available at the switch. In other words the switch box may only have switch legs in it and no neutral (necessary for a light). Turn the ckt. breaker off that feeds the outlet. Run a 14/2 w/ground romex from the outlet box to the ceiling box. As you remove the outlet you may notice two black wires on the one side. One of those is a constant ''hot'', the other is the ''hot'' from the switch. (Before you started, the lamp that you could control with the switch was plugged into either the top or the bottom holes, these correspond to the top and bottom black wires). Tie the black of your romex to the switched black (or slip it under the same screw) and the white wire of your romex to the white on the other screw of the outlet. Dont forget to tie your grounds in as well. If you only had one black wire upon removing the outlet, then just connect the wires color for color.
2007-01-27 16:57:21 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depending on how good a DIY person you are - this can be done without much difficult - since your switch controls the outlet - you can make your conection from your outlet to your light fixture - as long as you can fish the wire from the fixture to the outlet - the switch will control your lights as well. Connect Black wire with black and white to white. Cutting the power to this switch is a good idea but if the switch is in off position - you can do your connection - good luck
2007-01-27 16:50:02 · answer #3 · answered by happy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
this is a either or situation, if you have a switched wall outlet , you probly don;t have a neutral wire in the boxfor the switch
you will have a black and a white white being hot and black going to the plug,if you run the wiring in the attic for the light and if you are going to do this thur out the house, i would use a dedicated circuit to the panel box for all the lighting .
Check the plug to see how many wires you have pull the plug WITH power off, you sure see 6 wires three black three whites
one of the whites should be on the brass screw or hot side in this case you need to come from the plug, if yo uhave only two wires in the switch box black and white you have what i just described( NO NEUTRAL IN THE SWITCH BOX). try the dedicated circuit
2007-01-28 02:19:55 · answer #4 · answered by mr_jim51 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Outlet to switch to light. But!! I recommend having an experienced person help with this and make sure you shut off power at breaker box.
2007-01-27 16:33:43 · answer #5 · answered by JAN 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What you need is power going to your switch. It can get its power from a receptacle. From the switch a wire goes to the fixture. To control multiple fixtures you tie the fixtures in a series. This is the basic wiring method for lighting.
2007-01-27 16:35:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Your house is wired in the correct manner, what your saying is you want to customize it. It isn't wired for this so, it's not going to be a small job. It's best to have an electrician do this if your that adamant on doing it.
2007-01-27 22:09:35 · answer #7 · answered by cowboydoc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
contact your local Home Depot. they can help you with all of that easily.
http://thehomedepot.com
2007-01-27 16:35:08 · answer #8 · answered by Dashes 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋