Residential wiring problem

Factual Questions
1

OK, I’m dyin’ here.

I have a laundry room fan controlled by a switch, on what I believe to be a spur circuit. It’s in a double box with a 3-way switch for the laundry room light. The fan switch is on a 2-conductor+ground cable; there are two cables that run through the box, with pigtails everywhere.

The fan’s black wire goes to the switch, the white wire is pigtailed to all the other commons, and the ground is pigtailed to all the other grounds. The switch has a second black wire coming out of it which goes to a pigtail of black wires that’s involved with the whole 3-way mess – I guess that’s the incoming hot wire.

I’m trying to install a combination switch and plug socket, so that I can have a working socket and independently turn the fan on and off, but I want to leave them on the same circuit. The two elements therefore can have a common ground, but need separate hots.

Can anyone give me insight into what the hell the electrician was thinking, and where I need to make connections? So far, I’m guessing that I need to connect the pigtail of commons to the “common” terminal, the wire from the fan to the switch terminal, and the socket’s hot terminal to – what? Connecting the fan’s incoming hot wire would deprive the fan of power; do I need another wire from the black pigtail to one of the hot terminals?

2

You’ll wire the outlet normally, directly off the incoming circuit. there will be a second connection point on the outlet you can tap the hot wire from to go to the switch and ultimately to the fan. The commons and grounds will all be connected to their respective “pigtails”.

3

Is this something like what you want to install? If so, it should pretty much replace the switch you have in place now for your fan.

The way you describe the wiring, it sounds as though the electrician knew what he was doing. (I’ll bet he knew his neutral from his “common.” :wink: ) The only extra wiring you’ll have to do is provide a jumper for the neutral connection on the new receptacle. That means adding a short (6" or so) bit of wire from what you call the “pigtail” to the new receptacle.

4

Thanks, guys; Tbone, I can’t open your link, but I bet it’s the same.

Embarrassing to admit it, I read Q.E.D.'s reply and thought, “well, that’s no good; I’d have to have a second terminal to run a jumper to.” I then banged my head on the keyboard after recalling that there IS a second terminal, with a molded-in break-off jumper, that for some reason just never clicked in my head as being connected to the switch.

I am a blind idiot. Carry on.