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I want to install a new electrical outlet from an existing circuit, but the closest outlet is on another wall. There is, however, a light switch on the wall I am trying to install the new outlet on. The light switch has 3 wires coming from it, a black wire, a white wire (loop switch) and a copper ground wire. An outlet typically requires a black (hot) wire, a white (neutral), and a ground wire. Since the light switch is missing a neutral wire, I was wondering if the ground wire can act as the neutral wire for the outlet. I realize this means there is no ground, but can the existing copper ground wire coming from the light switch be spliced and used as a neutral and ground (for a GFCI outlet)? Is this safe? I want to plug an air filter into this new outlet that will be on 24/7. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Never use the equipment ground as a neutral. While it does go back to the neutral bus - officially it is NOT a neutral. Could you go back to back with the existing outlet? Would be much easier to do. -
No, there is no outlet on the other side of the wall. The closest outlet is on a wall separated by a doorway. Guess it's time to call an electrican.Comment
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Is this on a ground floor room? If it is, you can drill up from the basement in the hollow wall-space and install a line. Take a long finishing nail and drive it down approximately one inch out from the baseboard - leave some head so you can pull it out. Go down into the basement and find where the nail penetrated. Now with a drill, estimate how far over to go to be in the wallspace and drill upward through the plate. Topside - cut out an opening for a plastic old work wall case about a foot up from the floor at this nail location, then push up some 12/2 wire and fasten the box and finish up your outlet. In the basement run the cable to your panelbox and connect to an appropriate breaker or find a circuit with not too much a load on it and run it in here and make splices. Shut the breaker off feeding this circuit first.Comment
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The outlet I am trying to install is on the 2nd floor in my master bedroom, but what you are suggesting does give me another idea. My master bedroom sits on top of the garage. Perhaps I can drill a hole through the floor and run and a wire to an existing outlet in the garage and then just "borrow" from that outlet? By doing it this way though, I'll have the wire stapled to the ceiling and wall in the garage, rather than hidden in the walls, so it may be unsightly, but it's the garage so I guess it doesn't really matter. Just out of curiousity, how do you connect lines to a circuit breaker, or "feed the circuit"? We don't have a basement, so our panel box also sits in the garage. I have no idea how to connect this way, which is why I'm leaning more towards borrowing from the existing outlet that's already in the garage.Comment
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Garage wiring for outlet
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If it's a second floor and you have access to an attic or crawlspace you can fit into then its relatively easy. Once you get up there and can located the approx area you want the outlet, look at the ceiling from above. Between the sheets of sheetrock, or plaster and lath in an older building - you can spot the top plate of a room divider. Just measure out from an outside wall and drill downward. If you should hit a stud move the bit one way or another and drill again. The stud's only 1 5/8 inch wide. Cut your hole into the wall for the outlet and push the wire down to the opening. Then look around for a junction box or a good home run path to where your panelbox is located and drill down again, this time on the surface of an inside wall where the panelbox is located. Should be easy from there on.Comment
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