The national Electrical Codes are not a suggestion. If you don't understand what they are or why they are in place, you should not be doing your own wiring and instead hire a licensed electrician. This includes replacing switches, replacing outlets, or adding UPB couplers and repeaters and other things to your electrical box. They are in place to not only prevent a fire in your house, but also your neighbor's house when yours catches on fire.
wuench said:
wuench, on 13 Mar 2015 - 07:07, said:
It is legal to have a switched outlet, but not one on a dimmer. Of course if you are willing to accept the risk of something besides the light getting plugged into it (applicance, space heater), it causing a fire, and the insurance company not paying out and you are willing to remember to remove it if you sell the house or before you have any inspections done, you have a lot more options...
Lets say you put a 6A UPB switch in the wall that controls an outlet, and you sell that house. The inspector is not responsible for verifying that each switch in the house is correct and its doubtful they would catch it. Then lets say its cold one morning and the new homeownwer plugs a space heater (1800W) into the outlet? When the house burns down, you could be liable for that. the inspector would have zero liability because that is not something an inspector is expected to check.
The NEC covers even more than switched outlets. A UPB dimmer has to be rated correctly for lamp fixtures as well. The switch has to be rated for the maximum rating of all the lighting fixtures, NOT JUST the ratings of all the bulbs. If you have a fixture that is rated for 1000W because it can hold 10 100W light bulbs, but you are using 10 10W LED bulbs, you STILL have to use the 1000W rating. It its a fixture with non-replacable LEDs, that is a different story.
There is actually more for those that really want to follow the code, but this is often not checked. Since 2002 many branches circuits of your house (bedrooms in 2002, other non-GFI branches in 2008) have required the installation of an ARC-Fault breakers when performing any modification of the electrical system. Replacing switches could be considered such a modification. Not replacing these breakers won't cause your house to burn down, but it is good practice to upgrade to these breakers if you don't have them.
There are over 50,000 home electrical fires each year in the U.S.
Home electrical distribution and lighting systems are the fourth leading cause of home fires - See more at:
http://www.esfi.org/index.cfm/page/Fire-Statistics/pid/12014#sthash.Fie13lyj.dpuf
So the three correct ways to switch an outlet are:
1) Use a 15A UPB switch.
Pro: Simple.
Con: Only Leviton makes these so they may not match your other switches.
2) Wire the outlet always on and use a UPB outlet and UPB transmitter switch
Pro: You can use any UPB switch
Con: Requires both a UPB switch and UPB outlet, adding to the cost.
3) Wire the outlet always on, and use a lamp or appliance module to control the device.
Pro: You can use any UPB switch.
Your switch can control any outlet in the house and you can change it at will
Con: You have to buy a UPB switch and a UPB module
Modules are a bit ugly