Electrical Outlet – How to Remove Receptacle and Abandon Electrical Outlet

No, just breaking the tab off is not enough. You need to have wiring specifically that goes from the switch to the outlet.

What likely happened is this: Most electricians will daisy-chain outlets, using one set of terminals for the feed, and one to go to the next outlet. By breaking off the tab, you removed power to everything downstream from that outlet.

Wiring for a switched outlet varies.

Sometimes there is a normal two-conductor wire that goes from the feed in the outlet to the switch (on black), and then the switch connects the two wires, and it comes back and goes to the top outlet (with the tab broken off). In this case the white wire should be colored red, or at least black to indicate it's hot. Red usually means switched. It's against code to leave a white wire carrying hot, but it does of course happen.

The other way it's often done is by having the feed come into the switch, then carried over a 3-conductor wire to the first (switched) outlet, where the red wire is switched and is connected to the top outlet, white carries neutral, and black is hot and is both connected on the bottom outlet and daisy-chained along to the rest.

There's other variations as well, though generally the power will be on the same circuit (breaker) - otherwise any fixture on it must have a clear indication that it is powered by two sources, and honestly I've never seen this done in a residential setting before (not even sure if residential code allows it).

So in short, you can't make a switched outlet unless the outlet is explicitly wired that way.

• If you can re-wire (from an unfinished floor below), it's doable.
• If you want to cut holes in the drywall and redo it, that works as well.
• For a less intrusive option, you can put in some "smart" switches like Insteon, UBP, or X10 (though honestly, X10 has signal reliability problems, I'd stay away despite it being dirt cheap). Benefit of those is you don't even have to replace the outlet - once you have the switch in, you can put plug-in modules anywhere you want that will be controlled by that switch.

(Note: I prefer, and usually see -- at least in Canada -- the bottom outlet switched, but these diagrams show it as top switched, so I left my description that way)

The holes in the back accept straight wire and are electrically connected directly to the screws on the side. The holes are a newer connection method while the screws are more traditional. Tightening the screws presses contacts against the wires in the holes and holds them in place.

In this case, you have a feed wire going to one and then continuing on to another place from the second. By the electrical code (at least in Ontario), you're not allowed to do this. You must connect the feed to the branch and to a short "stub" wire with a marette and then connect that stub wire to your outlet (either at the screw or through the hole in the back). Some people take short-cuts, however, and connect it this way to avoid the marettes.

Aside from that, I'll note that you have a "split circuit" outlet here. The top and bottom outlets are on different circuits, perhaps because it's a kitchen outlet and thus they must be split circuit (by the electrical code of Ontario, anyway -- your mileage may vary) or because one outlet (with the red wire) is "switched" by some wall switch. Make sure you break off the connector tabs between the two sockets on the new outlet so you don't accidentally short the two circuits together.

EDIT: As pointed out by @MichaelKaras, some outlets don't bind the straight-in wires with the screws but have spring-loaded clips that hold the wire and are released by inserting a small screwdriver into the square opening just above the hole.

EDIT: @MPelletier makes a great comment: US multi-wire circuits like that require either a double breaker or that the two breakers be yoked together so that you can't only turn off one. You might consider fixing the breaker box wiring for safety purposes. That's true in Canada as well.