I currently have a light switch in my bathroom that controls the light and also the only outlet. Can I remove the bypass the switch so the outlet stays hot or do I need to run a new line for the outlet?
Electrical – Rewire switched bathroom receptacle to always be hot
electricalreceptacleswitch
Related Solutions
If you accidentally broke the tab between the black (common) screws on the swtich, simply use two short pigtails off the supply line like this...
If you have two separate cables (one to the fan, and one to the light), then you'd wire it up like this...
And again if you've clipped the tab between the terminals, it will look like this...
Here is what the original circuit would have looked like with 3 wire cable...
And here is what the original circuit would have looked like with two separate cables...
Don't forget, since it's a bathroom the receptacle has to be protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI).
Simply cap off the red wire at the receptacle and the switch, using a twist-on wire connector. Then replace the receptacle with a new one, that doesn't have the tab broken between the ungrounded (hot) terminals. On the new receptacle, connect only the black, white, and ground wires.
Now the receptacle will always be hot, and the switch will be unused. This will allow you to use the switch for your new lights instead. Just connect the black wire going to your lights to the switch, and the white to the other white wires in the box.
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Best Answer
I doubt anyone would intentionally wire a bathroom receptacle this way. They either made a mistake making the connections / splices, which can easily be corrected, or they ran the wiring wrong, which is more much difficult to correct.
You can correct the problem without correcting the wiring if you convert to a smart switch. If the switch box doesn't have a neutral present, this will limit your choice of smart switch, but it is still doable.
You could also remove the switch so the light and receptacle always have power, and use a light with a pull cord switch - it's perfectly sound electrically, but it's not really done in the US any more.