Electrical – Rewiring Outdoor Light to Switched Outlet (half hot, half not)

electrical

I have an outdoor light that's currently controlled via a light switch inside the house, that I would like to convert into a switched outlet (half hot, half controlled via the existing light switch).

However, I'm not sure if it's even possible… I opened up the outdoor light and there are three wires coming from the wall (black, white and ground). Each of these wires have a pigtail with another wire added that is then connected to the outdoor light.enter image description here

Advice appreciated!

Best Answer

As you may have suspected, you would need four wires to have a half-switched and half-hot outlet. Ground, Neutral, Hot and Switched Hot. So, you could replace the light with an outlet, but it would have to be all switched or all hot (remove the light switch).

This day and age, you could use a regular outlet and then plug in an outdoor wifi switch to it and use that to switch something while the other receptacle always has power.