wrote:
" bit cheaper to buy the two-pack or three-pack at the big box
store. "

DON'T !

thoise cheapo things are cheapo for a reason. they meet specs, but
they got ****ty screws on them, and the bare minimum of body and ****.

Calm down and sober up a little.

I was specifically talking about GFCIs. When I moved into this house in
2009, I needed three of them: two to replace non-GFCI bathroom outlets
(which was legal when the house was built) and one to add an outlet in
the garage where there was previously just a light switch. When I went
to Home Depot, they had Leviton GFCIs for about $7 or $8 quantity one,
or Leviton GFCIs with exactly the same part number in a box of three for
about $1 less apiece ($18 to $21 for the box). That's what I was
thinking about when I wrote the above.

For "regular" non-GFCI outlets, or switches, I quit buying the 39 cent
jobs more than 15 years ago. My original application was replacing worn
out 30-year-old outlets in my previous house, and I wanted to install
something better than what was there. Earlier in the thread with amdx,
the following exchange happened:

amdx My previous in the garage measurements were in error, everything
amdx in the garage is OK, except the outlets are 40 years old and make
amdx poor connection on the slots.

me That's a different rainy-day project for the spring or fall (when
me you can turn off the juice without interrupting the furnace or
me aircon). Buy "spec grade" outlets of the right color in boxes of 10
me at your favorite big-box store and work around the house replacing
me them. (The "spec grade" stuff should cost about $1 apiece.)

Since I was doing an entire house full (about three dozen), it was worth
it to buy the boxes of ten. They were Pass and Seymour Legrand, spec
grade, and about $10 or $11 a box. I still have a couple, new in the
box.

When you tsake to ding wiring, consider it a permanent thing. think
aboput this, whatever wiring was not adequate for your purpose now,
who9ever did that is dead. His wiring WAS fine. Un itl now.

The very first all-new circuit I installed, at the age of 16, is still
going strong 25 years later. I expect it to still work when I inherit
that house in another 25 years or so.

so gety the ****ing Leviton.

I just get the regular kind. http://xkcd.com/90/

Get the Square D QO series panel.

But this Federal Pacific Electric one still works!

People do not want outlets at the middle of the wall, the want the
outlets at the corners.

In Germany, it's fairly common to see a receptacle right underneath the
switch for the overhead light, as you walk into the room. The switch is
at about the same height as it is here and the receptacle is immediately
underneath it (like, its cover plate touches the switch cover plate).
This gives you an outlet that is unlikely to be blocked by furniture,
because people want to be able to reach the light switch.

I later got a German D-I-Y wiring book and one of the things I think it
was trying to tell me is that "switch loops" are verboten - the feed
always comes to the switch first, then goes to the fixture. This might
explain why it's easy to have a receptacle at the switch.

Matt Roberds