This switch is located in an upstairs bedroom it controls
2 receptacles in that room, 2 walls
3 in the next bedroom, 3 walls
1 in the hallway between these rooms
and 1 exterior double flood light fixture, also mounted under the soffit between the 2 bedrooms
The exterior light is not on a photocell so it is on whenever the receptacle are in use and obviously having “control” will only cause another problem down the road for the parents.
Client asked if this is a CODE ISSUE and I can’t find anything.
I scoured the IRC and the NEC and could find no code references for this situation. Obviously it is not only a useless arrangement but also a safety issue as well. There are no code references to positive control, in the same room, of switch controlled receptacles. However it could be a significant safety hazard.
This may violate the spirit of 210.52 but there is no language I know of that says the required receptacles in a given wall space can’t be switch controlled or that switch needs to be in the room.
Barry I had to chuckle when I saw your post.
I said is the switch to low or is the receptacle to high.
In reading your breakdown, it triggered an old memory when I was a kid.
The switch was obviously in the Master Bedroom and the originator of that dwelling had it set up that way so when the Boss of the family household, usually the Mother, said lights out kids time for bed.
She meant it.
No more reading in bed after bedtime. ha. ha.
Handi-cap accessible driveway, Barry? I think you need risers on your front suspension. ha. ha.
Perhaps the switch in question has been replaced and the wire connections inadvertantly swapped around. I’ve run into this numerous times in 30yrs. of being a sparky. Lots of switches have a hot in and a hot out romex and a switching romex. The hot is tapped for the switch to typically control the light in its room. If the hot out romex and the switching romex connections get crossed everything downstream of that switch in the circuit is now controlled by that switch.
So far no violation noted except what we all already knew either the sparky was an a bulb short or this was done by “Handy Dan/Donna the Homeowner” or one of their friends or relatives, like good ol’ Uncle 3Fingers
that type of set up i did see that maybe two or three time so far but that switch is used for kinda like master switch for bedroom lumiaires and repectales when they have to deal with some kids IMO it can get really confuseing with this type of set up if you are not famuiar with it
I suppose that is why the buyers are paying you. When people are buying a house they have so many things on their mind they can be blind to things that should seem obvious. A good salesman is supposed to be showing you things you love and hoping you don’t notice the bad things.
I’m surprised there has not been more input but had to chuckle at the references to the lack of bulbs from the sparky who did it.
I still think it would make a good addition to the codes to specify that switch controlled outlets (except exterior outlets) be controlled by the switch only in the same room. This could prevent inadvertent activation of an outlet when someone is not expecting it.
