Half Hot Switch

This is part 4 of the woodworking shed build series.

Half hot switch. A half switched outlet is an outlet where either the top or bottom half of the outlet is controlled by a switch while the other half is always on. My understanding was that the broken tab on the hot wire side of the receptacle allowed for the switch to control one half of the outlet but not the other. It makes or breaks the hot connection to the load. Here the source neutral is spliced to the receptacle and to the white wire running through to the switch box where it can be used to connect a switch that requires a neutral such as a smart dimmer or timer.

This kind of outlet is commonly found in modern construction and in rooms that do not have an overhead light. The key to wiring a half hot outlet. An additional unswitched hot wire would need to run to the receptacles that will not be controlled by the switch. I assumed that switching in the new receptacle with all of the connections the same would simply provide an always hot connection and that the switch would have no affect on the outlet.

With the installation described in this question you will need to purchase an outlet that has a removable tab or a provision for separating the top outlet from the bottom outlet. The switch opens or closes contact on the hot wire leading to the outlet s receptacles that you want to control with it. Wiring for a half hot switched outlet. In this video we learn how to wire a half hot receptacle which is useful if you want to control an outlet with a light switch.

This video explains one wiring approach for creating a half switched outlet to. Chris the most often overlooked key to making a half hot outlet work is to make sure to remove the bridge or tab that is the connection between the top receptacle and the bottom receptacle on the brass or power side of the outlet. This is an updated diagram for the previous circuit. A half hot or switched outlet is a duplex outlet that only has one plug permanently on while the other half is turned on and off by an ordinary wall switch.

This leaves the other half permanently powered for other uses. In this part i show you how to wire one side of an outlet to a switch while keeping the other side under. While the entire duplex outlet could be turned on via a wall switch only one of the two plug ins is usually switched. Wiring a half hot switched outlet how to wire a half hot switched outlet so that a wall switch controls half of the receptacle outlet and the other half remains on all the time.

With this arrangement the top half of the duplex is controlled with the switch and the bottom half is always hot.