Hello, I have a room which has only a light fixture and a switch to turn this light fixture on/off - there is nothing else. I would like to put a freezer in there so I purchased a switch/receptacle combo unit to replace the switch with the goal of having the switch operate the light fixture and the receptacle always on for the freezer. The switch is (I think) at the end of a run so in the box there is a black/hot, a white/neutral, and a bare/ground. There are no other wires in the box.
The instructions for the cooper combo device (274/3274) were to wire black to the black screw nearest the switch and leave a tab intact that runs between the first black screw near the switch and a second black screw nearest the receptacle on the left side. Then to wire ground to the green screw in the middle on the right side. The neutral was to be run to the copper screw nearest the switch AND to the silver screw nearest the receptacle I - I used a wire nut to connect two short wires to the neutral and ran the first to the copper and the second to the silver screws.
When I returned power I noticed that when the light is on, my receptacle has no power. When the light is off then power returns to the receptacle for the freezer.
Can anyone offer ideas on how to resolve this? It's driving me nuts! :-D
Thanks!
-Steve
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I'd say off hand that you have a problem with your original plan. From what you describe it sounds like the power (from the main panel) is fed to the box where the light fixture is mounted. From there they ran the wire 2 conductors +ground to the switch. If you look in the box behind the light fixture you will most likely see 2 cables coming in the white wire from one of these will be contected to the light fixture and the black will be connected to one of the 2 conductors in the other cable. The remaining wire in that cable will be connected to the black lead on the light fixture. There is another issue about this circuit.. it was originally designed for lighting and not running a freezer. connecting a freezer may cause you to have the breaker trip if the freezer is running and there are to many lights on. I'd suggest that you consider running a new 20Amp circuit for the freezer. It may not be easy but is safer and the freezer will like it better.
Steve
Steve
