adding overhead bedroom lighting using a switch that also controls a electrical outlt

[punkabilly136]

The title pretty much gives it away but how would I go about adding overhead lighting in a room that has none. The "light" switch on the wall controls an electrical outlet, so how would I go about wiring that to work on the ceiling? I've heard this is a common thing in 60's built homes and the electrical outlet was for a floor lamp. thanks for the help guys
bob

 

[Motofixxer]

Well in a simplified form, you need to run some wiring from the switch up to the attic or whatever is above the room where a new electrical box is installed. Without more info on what is there it's pretty hard to get specific. Wire should be like 12-2 to be safe and I would connect to the load side of switch so new light is switched along with the original outlets.

 

[punkabilly136]

When I talked to an electrician about it he said something about them "clipping" the switches and he said it was a pain and costly job to do. Now whether he was just blowing smoke up my *** to get some more money is beyond me.

 

[Motofixxer]

He might not have wanted to deal with a little thing. He didn't want to climb around in the attic running a wire or just wanted more money...who knows...

 

[punkabilly136]

so its not that big of a thing to do then is what your saying?

 

[Motofixxer]

It's a bit of a pain climbing around in the attic, and dropping down in the wall where the switch is...but no it's not that hard. Any competent electrician should be able to do it in half a day at the very most. But I'm no certified electrician.

 

[Aceman]

If you can chase a wire down the wall cavity into the switchbox easily then it's no big deal. If it's inaccessible, then it's time for surface mount raceway, aka Wiremold.

 

[punkabilly136]

cool, thanks everyone for the help...might actually try tackling it in the spring

 

[Motofixxer]

If your gonna run the wire, I would run a 12-3 so you have the option of a separate switch for a ceiling fan light and fan, also install a box designed for mounting a ceiling fan. That's what I would do.

 

[KustomZ]

A swag light might be another option if you don't want to go to the trouble of running wires in the wall.

 

[punkabilly136]

what does a 12-3 or 12-2 switch mean exactly?

 

[Git]

12 is the wire size. It can handle 20 amps. 14 is lighter and can only handle 15 amps. A normal "romex" type wire will have two conductors along with a bare copper wire that is the ground. The two conductors are black (hot) and white (neutral)

This would be considered a 12-2 or a 14-2. If you add a third conductor, red, you can now use that wire to power/switch something else, because it shares the neutral wire. this would be called a 12-3 or a 14-3. The normal way to wire a ceiling fan would use 3 wires so you can turn the fan on and off and also turn the light on and off with a separate switch

The "clipping" you mentioned is a crock. A normal wall outlet is called a duplex receptacle. It has two plugs that are connected on the sides with a strip of metal. If you cut (or clip) these strips, the two receptacles are now separate - that is how you control one of them with a wall switch. Since that is how yours is set up, you will need to replace that wall outlet to make it normal again - no big deal

 

[BigE]

I have the same problem and am going to be utilizing the same solution. The living room in my house has an unswitched ceiling fan/light and wall switches on either end of the room that control a few outlets in the wall. So when I come home at night, I have to walk to the middle of the room in the dark to pull the chain on the fan for light. That's a pain. Also, I have electronics plugged into the wall outlets and do not use the switches. However, whenever someone comes over and walks into the house ahead of me, they inevitably flip the switch trying to turn on the lights. This kills power to my stereo, cablebox and TV. So the clock goes haywire, the cablebox is screwed for at least a few minutes and I'm sure the brown-out does the rest of the components no good.
My plan is to use the existing switches, wiring and outlets to do a swap. All of my wiring runs through the attic so I'll go up top, cut the wires going from the switches to the outlets and the fan wiring. Then I'll wire the switches to the fan and connect the unswitched fan wiring to the outlets. Of course, I'll have to make sure that the circuits can handle the load, but this is all theoretical at this point.
The difference in your case is you would either have to run a new dedicated circuit for the wall outlets or you would just tap into the existing circuit such that the overhead light and the outlets would both be switched.

 

[VHF]

I did that to two rooms in my 1970 ranch house. None of the bedrooms had overhead lighting. One half of each duplex receptical in the room was controlled by the wall switch, which was nice because you could plug in a lamp (or lamps) anywhere you wanted in the room and have them controled by the wall switch.

I was fortunate that the switched hot from the wall switch went thru the attic where it jumped over the door (as part of a 14/3 which fed both switched and unswitched hot to the recepticals.) I had to install 2 junction boxes a few inches apart to tap in to the existing wiring in the attic because there wasn't enough slack to cut the exiting wires and do a proper junction.

I ran a short length of 14/3 (existing 15A circuit) between the two junction boxes, and then ran 14/2 from one of the junction boxes to a new round box for the celing light fixture.

To minimize time/work spent in the attic, I pre-wired the two junction boxes together as well as the whip to feed the new ceiling box. In the attic, I cut the existing cable. connected one end to each junction box, and routed the new "whip" over to the new ceiling light location.

I left the existing switched receptical functionality in place so we could still have a lamp that would go on and off along with the overhead ceiling fixture.

 

[punkabilly136]

thanks again guys for all the help!!! Its pretty cold here now so this will wait until spring but I really do appreciate all the help, and I hope people keep posting suggestions
bob