Changing swithced outlet to overhead light

[jrmac99]

I have a room that has no overhead light and 1 switched outlet (bottom always hot, top controlled by swicth).

The switch box has a black, white & ground. The outlet box has 2 sets of black, white and ground.

Can I, and if so how would I, go about getting the outlet to be non-switched and run power up to the ceiling and use the existing swicth to control it?

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

[joed]

Two way to do this.
1. Run you new cable to the switched receptacle.
2. Run you new cable to the existing light switch.

Either way the receptacle can be always hot. The wiring is slightly different depending on which way you go.
Post your choice and I will post the wire connections.

[jrmac99]

Thanks for the reply.

Guess it would be easier to run from the swicth box to the new fixture. Swicthbox currently has 1 black, 1 white & ground.

How would I wire that setup?

[John Nelson]

Before starting, go buy a new receptacle. You won't want to reuse the old one (because it has the brass tab removed--don't worry about what that means).

First, you need to convert the receptacle to unswitched: Shut off the breaker. Pull the receptacle out of the box and disconnect it (record the connections before disconnecting just in case you need to go back). Set that receptacle aside in case you need to go back, but if all goes well, you will discard it when you are finished. There should be two black, two white, and two bare wires in the box. If you see any more wires, post back for further information. Connect the two black screws to the two brass screws on your new receptacle, and the two white wires to the two silver screws. Connect the grounding wires to the new receptacle as they were connected to the old receptacle. Carefully repack the box. Don't turn the breaker back on just yet.Now on to the switch: Remove the white and bare wires from the switch. Leave the black wire connected. Run the new black/white/bare cable from the ceiling into the switch box. Connect the black of your new cable to the screw vacated by the white wire. Connect the white of your new cable to the white of the old cable. Use a wire nut to connect the two bare wires to each other and to a pigtail to the green screw. Carefully repack the box.Finally, on to the light. Simply connect black to black, white to white, and ground to ground as indicated by the lighting manufacturer's instructions.

[jrmac99]

Thanks for the info.

Got a couple of questions ...

1. What would the wiring be if I ran from the outlet instead of the switch?
2. Is there any way I can get away without punching a hole in the wall to run the new cable? The current swicthed outlet is on the exterior wall, cables up through a stud wall into an attic, across the ceiling joists and then back down and interior stud wall. Could I "break" the cable running throught the attic and just re-route it to the ceiling fixture?? If so, what would that wiring look like?

Thanks a llot for al the help.

Jeff

[joed]

You need to have minimum 6 inches of cable inside a junction box. If you can break the cable and still have 6 then yes you can break the cable in the attic. You could also do it using 2 junction boxes to gain the length required for the 6 inches.

Tell us the connections in the switched receptacle and we can tell you exactly what needs to be changed. There will be no changes required in the switch box.

[jrmac99]

Dumb putz that I am, i disconnected the outlet before writing down the connections but maybe this will help ...

There are 2 sets of white, black and bare plus 1 6" pc of black wire.

If I remember correctly, 1 white was connected to the outlet terminal, the opposite black was connected to a terminal and the remaining black, white and black pc were pigtailed and the end of the pigtail was connected to a terminal., tab on the outlet broken off.

Probably not right but hopefully you can make some sense out of it.

[joed]

At the receptacle connect one black to each of the gold screws. Connect one white to each of the silver screws. Connect the grounds together and to the green screw.
The power cable in the ceiling is now always live. Don't turn on the circuit until you finish the wiring for the new light. The switch will make a dead short and blow the breaker.

After you cut the wire in the attic.
Connect the white from the receptacle to the white from the new light.
Conncet the black from the receptacle the white from the switch. Color the white black with tape or marker.
Connect the black from switch to black from new light.
Connect all grounds together and to box if it is metal.

If the receptacle was 1/2 switched then you should replace it. The tab on the gold side will be missing and new light won't work.

[jrmac99]

PERFECT!

Works like a charm ... thanks for all the help.

Glad I found you guys!

[hintzn6228]

I had the same problem that jrmac99 had. I followed the instructions and got the receptacle switched so that it is always on. However, when I followed the instructions on how to hook up the new ceiling fan to the switch nothing happened. Any ideas? Thanks!

[John Nelson]

Better start over with all the details. Your situation is probably not exactly the same as jrmac99's.

[hintzn6228]

You're right -- it wasn't exactly like it. For some reason, there was a white wire spliced together with the black wires... Once I put all the white wires together, it worked exactly like you guys said... Thought I had double checked it, but triple checking obviously was needed. Thanks for the quick write back.