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Home  Electrical Receptacles How to Wire Switched Receptacles
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How to Wire a Half Switched Receptacle |
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Written by Roger
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Sunday, 03 June 2007 |
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How to wire a half switched receptacle
Wiring a receptacle from a switch is very
common and is a simple as having the power feed through a switch.
However, how often do you need both sockets on a receptacle on a the
same switch? Wouldn't it be more useful to have one of the sockets hot
all of the time and the other one powered from a switch?
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The first thing to be done is to turn off the source of power (ususally a circuit breaker in the circuit breaker panel), and verify the power is off with a meter or tester.
The ground is one of the most important connections on a receptacle. If the box is a metal box, the ground should also be connected to the box, if it is plastic, bonding to the box is not necessary. If power comes in and also leaves this box, it is best to twist all of bare wire together with one long wire for each termination required. Clip the other bare wires short, use a ground crimp to crimp them all together, and make a loop in the end of the long ground wire and wrap it tightly around the ground (green) screw. (The best tool for this job is pliers.) Tighten the screw tightly.
You will need to determine if you want the top socket to be hot all of the time or the bottom socket. On the side of the receptacle between the two gold screws you will find a metal tab connecting the two screw terminals. Do NOT remove the tab located between two white screws. Use your pliers to break the tab off and remove it.
We are going to assume that you have a 3 conductor cable w/ ground coming from your 2-way switch. At the switch you would connect the black (hot) wire to the same terminal that the hot feed to the switch is connected. Attaching the red (switched hot) to the other terminal on the switch and white (neutral) wires should be spliced to the existing white wire (neutral). Most receptacles now have quick connect round holes on the back next to each
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screw. To use the plug-in method, use a wire stripper to remove the insulation from the wire according to the stripping guide stamped into the side of the receptacle. Then plug the black (hot) wire into one of the holes nearest one the gold screws. Then plug the red (switched hot) wire into one of the holes nearest one the gold screws. Likewise, plug the white (neutral) wire into one of the two holes nearest the white wires. The wires should be pushed in far enough that no bare metal is showing and the wire is secure when pulled upon. If you ever need to remove the wire there is a small rectangular release latch the can be pressed with a small jewelers sized screwdriver. This is usual located right below the round wire hole.
The other method of wire attachment is to strip both wires back three-quarters of an inch. Using your pliers, create a loop at the end of each wire in a "U" shape. Place the wires around the screws (white wire on white screw - black wire on one gold screw - red wire on the other gold screw) and close the loop around the screw with the pliers. Then tighten the screws tightly.
If power continues out of this receptacle to feed other receptacles, you should connect the leaving black wire to the same terminal as the black wire is connected. The leaving white wire should be connected either of the white screws.
Tighten any screw terminals that are not used, to prevent them from accidentally shorting anything.
Place the receptacle in the box making sure the receptacle is in the correct alignment. Use care to ensure that the bare ground wires are kept away from the hot terminals. Using the two long receptacle screws attached to the receptacle, fasten the receptacle tightly to the box. Turn the power back on to test the receptacle.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 20 October 2007 )
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