"I-zheet M'drurz" wrote in message
...
On 04 Jan 2004, j j wrote:


"I-zheet M'drurz" wrote in message
...
On 04 Jan 2004, Phil Anderson wrote:

I would like to leave the switch on at all times

You shouldn't have to do that to use your electrical
outlets.

this might be common in old houses
it is the same way in my living room. there's no light on
the ceiling and the outlets are there only to power lamps;
turn on the switch and you turn on the lamps which are the
only source of light.

Oh yeah, I've seen that situation often. When there's no
ceiling fixture, you can almost guarantee a wall switch will
control at least one receptacle designed to have a lamp
plugged into it. Only a slight disagreement, I don't think
that was done in -real- old houses like this one, it didn't
become popular until around the 50's, at least in homes built
in this area.

But the possibilities boggle the mind! Maybe the top of
EVERY receptacle in the room is wired to that switch, and the
bottom plugs are always hot? Maybe the previous owner hacked
in a ceiling fixture and didn't know enough to wire it to an
unswitched black wire, or ???

I guess that's my point: Somebody who knows what they're
doing (not necessarily an EE, in this case g) could take
off
a few cover plates and sniff around, assess the situation and
get it straightened out. No busting out walls required!

--
Baisez-les s'ils ne peuvent pas prendre une plaisanterie
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Tom Pendergast e-mail is for sissies, say it on line

There are four outlets in the room, and the top and bottom of each
is hot when the switch is on, and cold when the switch is off. I
have removed and replaced the switch and every outlet, without
changing the result. The EE does not claim to be expert on this,
but he did fiddle with the wiring in the switch. Several attempts
made things worse, none made things better. The wiring of the
outlets was not unusual in any way that I could see.