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Electrical Wiring

Changing a switch to a switch and outlet

7 years ago

Hi all:
I have a light switch in my attic that I want to change to a switch and grounded outlet, but the wiring is kind of odd. There are two pieces of romex coming in (black/white/copper) and one going out to the light.
The hots were connected together and to the switch. Then a hot line went out to the light. The 3 neutrals were all connected together as were the grounds. The ground was not connected to the switch nor were the neutrals (there was actually nowhere to connect a neutral on that particular switch as far as I could tell.)
I wired the hots the same way on the new switch/outlet, ran a line from the 3 interconnected neutrals to the neutral connection on the switch/outlet, and left the 3 interconnected ground wires unconnected from the switch. Is that correct?
Thanks,
Kyle

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Comments (4)

yankee4210
7 years ago
There should be a ground screw on the device (switch/plug). Connect a ground wire to that, and pigtail it to the other grounds. The rest looks good.
kmillscomm thanked yankee4210
Vith
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Switches do not require a neutral (unless they are a smart switch which requires power itself). That is why it was not connected to the previous switch. It would be good to know where the power goes to on the second line so you know to label breaker and consider line capacity. Couple guesses would be a powered fan or another outlet in the attic. If it goes down into the house it could power who knows what.

The grounds are crimped together. You will have to cut the grounds and attach another pigtail to the outlet for that to be grounded correctly. Then wire nut the grounds.
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kmillscomm
Original Author
7 years ago
Vith: I cut off the crimp connecting the ground wires and used a plastic cap connector to reconnect them and pigtail a wire to the outlet ground screw. Is that right? I don't know what "wire nut the grounds" means.
Vith
7 years ago
"plastic cap connector" is a wire nut.
kmillscomm thanked Vith

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