Wiring outlet

[Dielectric]

I’ll start by saying that although I am fairly handy in most cases, I do **** at electricity…

- So I need a power outlet in my basement…

I have lights, but no outlets. I have access to a few wires, but due to insulation, it is not easy to ID what the wires serve up above so I cannot tap into an outlet above.

I have a switch by the basement entry. I figure this would be a good source of permanent power, so I put a junction box and tap into the wire about a foot before the switch.

I tap into wire at that location, Matching neutral to neutral, ground to ground, live to live with a 3-wire connector each time. All looks good.

This, having already made my run, and wired the outlet at the desired location - white wire to silver crews on outlet, black to gold, copper ground to green screw.

The run is some 25 feet. Looks great. Breaker now back on. I put a plug in and nothing. - Lights (LED bulbs) do work fine as before.

The outlet does not power something plugged into it…

With multimeter, I see I have 120v between neutral (white) & the ground which seems odd… No voltage between white & black. Black and ground.

I read that reversed wires will cause this. But I don’t see my wires reversed…

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. - but I suspect it is something stupid.

I disconnected the outlet and taped off the wires.

I’d appreciate any insight. Thanks!

 

[Dielectric]

This is a plain outlet - not GFCI.

 

[Mzungu]

My guess is that your existing switch you tied into only has a switch leg and a hot with no neutral. Were the white and black both on the switch?

 

[Jmellc]

You tapped a switch leg. It has no neutral. Please get an electrician to do this for you.

 

[mike93lx]

Disconnect everything you did, please.

You either need to do a lot more research, or hire this out. Switch boxes are often not a source of constant power. The power can be fed to the fixture and then just a switch leg run to the switch.

 

[Zeke]

In spite of the criticism, you need to check your source before assuming you can branch off of it. A simple check of the switch ahead of the work would have told you that there was no constant circuit at that location, only a hot and a switch leg. You could have verified this by testing the neutral ground with the switch on and off. In that box the white should have been taped black or at least colored black with a marker. Just for reference, you should do that (with the power off, of course).

So, you need to run a new circuit to the switch or move your new outlet wire to the ceiling where you will find constant power. If there is only insulation covering your electrical it shouldn't be that hard to open some spots up to run some wires. A lot better than having finished walls and ceiling.

It it reasonable to assume you have this at the moment:

As you can see, the neutral connected to the lamp does not go to the switch box, but what what 'looks' like a neutral actually is connected to a black wire at the fixture box (upper left red wire nut). Pretty easy to understand when you see it. In your situation the wires are reversed as it doesn't make any difference which wire brings current to the switch box. They both should appear black at each end. If this was done in conduit, they would indeed both be black (or some color other than white or green).

So, in conclusion, you need access to one of your boxes represented by the octagon box. Also, be sure to note breaker and wire size.

Edit: I think you do need to install a GFCI.

 

[Dielectric]

As studies have proven time and time again... you do have to be above a certain competency level in order to realize how bad you are / how little knowledge you have - about something something...

Thank you for the replies everyone!

Zeke - you rock. I understand now. Thanks for that!

I did disconnect everything once I could not make sense of what was going on. I was not about to leave that wired...

I can build a sailboat and sail to other countries (12V only!), I can even ride a mean MTB - But I have not done much wiring...

I’ll have another look…