The bedrooms in our house in California each have a light switch that controls power to an outlet in the room. The switches are the single-pole type, interrupting the black/hot wire. Is it acceptable to use lighted switches in this situation? (E.g., a Lutron single-pole switch with indicator light.)
I replaced the switch with a lighted one, and it seemingly works, but the outlet reads as open-neutral when I plug in a receptacle tester when the light switch is in the off position. I guess this is because the indicator light inside the switch probably draws current from hot and ground. What I don't know is if this arrangement is a problem or against code.
UPDATE: I tried replacing the lighted switch with an otherwise identical non-illuminated switch, with no other changes made, and lo and behold, the tester does not read open neutral when the switch is in the off position.
FWIW, the tester that I'm using looks very similar to this:
Also, because my description was unclear about the switch I mean, here's an image taken from a Leviton website (not the same brand but same idea):
Best Answer
I see no problem with installing an indicator type one pole switch to control a receptacle.