My house has a hallway with a light and light switch. The switch controls electricity to the light correctly but also electricity to both the entire adjacent rooms (office and front from). When the switch is off both rooms get electricity but when its on they don't. We've always left the switch in the off position and not used the light but I'd like to fix it.
I'm guessing two of the wires should be pigtailed to bypass the light switch entirely? There are three black wires and a ground going to the switch. I've made two diagrams below of the state of each terminal in both the on/off position. Thanks for any help.
Best Answer
And this is why people shouldn't slap wires on screws willy-nilly
The previous installer apparently thought that all wires belong on screw terminals, which isn't true here, and combined with the 3-way to yield the bizarroland behavior you see here. Fortunately, this is easy to fix.
Make sure the breaker's off. Take the two wires off the left hand side of the switch and wire-nut them to a short length of the same size wire to serve as a pigtail. Land this pigtail on the black screw on the switch. Turn the breaker on, and enjoy your outlets working all the time now.