I have very little electrical knowledge. I now believe I have done one of the most ignorant things I've ever done. Updating my home to sell, figured I'd switch out the switch and outlets. And here we go. I removed all outlets and switches all at once. Just figured black, white, ground. Nope not at all that's not how it works. I am lost where to start, I've been searching for whatever type of wires are in the box, that doesn't work either. The only switch I've been able to properly change is the important on, the bathroom. I appreciate any guidance at all.
Electrical – How to determine how the outlets and switches were wired after I removed them all
electricalreceptacleswitchwiring
Related Solutions
Something is wrong with the wiring to the ceiling fan or with the connections to the switch.
Possibly in between the last succesful test and the first unsuccessful use of that switch something has damaged the wiring (e.g. a nail into the wall? strain on the wires?)
I would isolate the circuit at the breaker box, test for voltage at the switch and then test the wires attached to the fan switch for unexpected continuity between live & neutral, live & earth. I'd then detach the switch from all wiring and test for continuity across it's contacts with the switch in each state.
It would be easy to change the half switched outlet to always on (by replacing it), but not trivial to make the switch control a different outlet. There is a dedicated wire running from the switch to the top half of your outlet (see red wire below). To control a different outlet, you'd need to run that wire to it.
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Best Answer
There's two ways to approach this.
One, spend time learning about how your house was wired. You'll need to be comfortable with hot wires dangling in space while you poke at them with the meter probes and figure out what's hot and what's not. I can imagine that you're also a little bit under the gun, since most of your breakers should be off and it is getting dark.
Two, just chalk this up to experience and get a real electrician as soon as possible. They'll fix everything in relatively short order.