# Why no ovehead lights in all bedroom?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 2, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443 "2013-07-02T14:31:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/21 "2013-07-02T18:58:32Z")
In my humble opinion, I believe it should be code that there is at least a junction box with a blank cover in every bedroom. That way, a homeowner can install a fan, light, or track lighting without going attic crawling or tearing out sheetroock. It would also help eliminate crap like [this](http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=77483).
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/22 "2013-07-02T19:01:02Z")
> [@rainy](#):
>
> Similarily ceiling fans were all the rage to update your home with 20 years ago as we got into our first house, no so much now.
I’m reminded of “Trading Spaces”, a reality show from a few years back on TLC, where two families (nearly always people who knew each other) swapped houses, and remodeled a room in each other’s house, under the guidance of a “celebrity” designer. It seemed like, in 90% of the cases, the rooms to be remodeled had ceiling fans, and that was always the first thing the designer wanted to get rid of.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/23 "2013-07-02T19:04:54Z")
Thats because the designer gets to go home and leave the homeowner to soak his sheets in sweat. Keeping the AC thermostat at 73 is a rare luxury with todays electric rates. A Ceiling fan on low makes such a big difference when the room temp is 77 or even 78.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/24 "2013-07-02T19:25:50Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> In my humble opinion, I believe it should be code that there is at least a junction box with a blank cover in every bedroom. That way, a homeowner can install a fan, light, or track lighting without going attic crawling or tearing out sheetroock.
that would leave you with an ugly cover plate to look at.
in really older home there would often be shallow pancake boxes in the ceiling. often pendent or chandler lights would be there with a domed base. when the light was removed and the base capped it would leave a tit on the ceiling.
yeah a fan rated box mounted to structural lumber would makes lots of sense in new construction.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/25 "2013-07-02T19:26:14Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> In my humble opinion, I believe it should be code that there is at least a junction box with a blank cover in every bedroom. That way, a homeowner can install a fan, light, or track lighting without going attic crawling or tearing out sheetroock. It would also help eliminate crap like [this](http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=77483).
You have one signature here for your petition.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/26 "2013-07-02T19:31:43Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#):
>
> …A switch that controls a single outlet dramaticaly reduces the options for furniture arrangement in a home–the bed has to be near one of the wall outlets that is NOT controlled by the light switch, and nothing else (TV, PC, blender, whatever) can be put in that switched outlet because it gets powered off when the switch gets flipped. …
sensible electrical planning would have a split receptacle (one have switched, the other always on).
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/27 "2013-07-02T19:35:18Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#):
>
> As a guy who has converted a couple dozen ‘lamp outlets’ to ceiling lights I would really like to get my hands around the neck of whomever is making this fashion choice for homeowners. A switch that controls a single outlet dramaticaly reduces the options for furniture arrangement in a home–the bed has to be near one of the wall outlets that is NOT controlled by the light switch, and nothing else (TV, PC, blender, whatever) can be put in that switched outlet because it gets powered off when the switch gets flipped. That’s just balls. Your bedside lamp and alarm clock/phone charger are plugged into an always hot outlet near the bed, so you’re limited there, and god help you if you want to arrange your room so that the TV or your computer need to access the power that is controlled by the lightswitch. Anyone who doesn’t see the problem here needs to have kids walking into a room and flipping the switch on them.
>
> Also, apart from the master bedroom, other bedrooms are going to be for kids or maybe used as offices. Both pretty much need the even lighting provided by a simple ceiling fixture and fully functional, always hot, wall outlets, and nobody gives a fashion damn about unbroken ceilings in bedrooms. People in a bedroom want predictable power outlets that they can plug a bedside lamp into, harsh but even overhead lighting to help with cleaning or playing, and a goddamned ceiling fan.
Not all switched outlets work like that. The ones in my house have only one outlet (the bottom one) of a pair on the switch. The top outlet is always on, so you can plug in a clock, phone charger, TV, or anything else you want to be unaffected by the switch.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/28 "2013-07-02T19:42:04Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#):
>
> As a guy who has converted a couple dozen ‘lamp outlets’ to ceiling lights I would really like to get my hands around the neck of whomever is making this fashion choice for homeowners. A switch that controls a single outlet dramaticaly reduces the options for furniture arrangement in a home–the bed has to be near one of the wall outlets that is NOT controlled by the light switch, and nothing else (TV, PC, blender, whatever) can be put in that switched outlet because it gets powered off when the switch gets flipped. That’s just balls. Your bedside lamp and alarm clock/phone charger are plugged into an always hot outlet near the bed, so you’re limited there, and god help you if you want to arrange your room so that the TV or your computer need to access the power that is controlled by the lightswitch. Anyone who doesn’t see the problem here needs to have kids walking into a room and flipping the switch on them.
>
> Also, apart from the master bedroom, other bedrooms are going to be for kids or maybe used as offices. Both pretty much need the even lighting provided by a simple ceiling fixture and fully functional, always hot, wall outlets, and nobody gives a fashion damn about unbroken ceilings in bedrooms. People in a bedroom want predictable power outlets that they can plug a bedside lamp into, harsh but even overhead lighting to help with cleaning or playing, and a goddamned ceiling fan.
Most switched outlets are wired with one of the duplex receptacles always hot, and the other switched. Have you checked yours? And if they weren’t wired that way, it’s often easy to rewire them that way/
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> that would leave you with an ugly cover plate to look at.
It’s easy to paint or paper a cover plate to blend in with the ceiling, all within code.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/29 "2013-07-02T19:51:08Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> that would leave you with an ugly cover plate to look at.
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> It’s easy to paint or paper a cover plate to blend in with the ceiling, all within code.
That’s a joke… I say, that’s a joke, son.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/30 "2013-07-02T21:54:12Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Not all switched outlets work like that. The ones in my house have only one outlet (the bottom one) of a pair on the switch. The top outlet is always on, so you can plug in a clock, phone charger, TV, or anything else you want to be unaffected by the switch.
Yeah, I’ve known that to be the case in newer houses. There’s a tab on the sides of the outlet that you can snap off to make two independant outlets. Unfortunately the places I’ve actually lived in the full time hot wire has been capped off when the outlet was replaced leaving the whole schmear at the mercy of the switch. Which blows my mind in two ways: if they were going to cap off a lead, why not the switched one so the outlet is always hot? and how is it I keep moving into a house that was previously inhabited by the same clown that does this? (I jest–if you don’t know about the tab it makes sense to opt for the switched lead. But I wonder how many times someone has ended up with an intermittent 220v outlet because they didn’t snap that tab and hooked up two hots. I know it’s happened to my old man when we redid the bathroom when I was a kid. 🙂
Hijack: Why 110 & 220 sometimes, and 120/240 other times? Did something change and the old nomenclature just hung around?
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### Author:  [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/31 "2013-07-02T22:11:45Z")
Ugh. We just spent a crapload of money getting overhead lights and a ceiling fan installed in our master suite. The house was built in 1910 but the master suite was created from the attic in 2004.
We have central air, but don’t want to have it on all the time. The ceiling fan is perfect when you just need to get the air moving on a stuffy night when you can’t get a breeze. Plus it supplements the AC so we don’t have to set it so cold.
And the goddamn lights! We had a single switched outlet and no overhead lights for a 40-foot-long room. WTH, builders! Even with 5 lamps there were dark corners. I was sick and tired of not knowing if my socks matched when getting dressed in the morning. So we put in dimmable LEDs. Fantastic. Soft when we don’t want a lot of light and BLAZINGLY BRIGHT when I am trying to find something or trying to clean. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/32 "2013-07-02T22:13:55Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#):
>
> Hijack: Why 110 & 220 sometimes, and 120/240 other times? Did something change and the old nomenclature just hung around?
the voltage changed. though the values are plus/minus 10% so allowable values of old and new do overlap.
if you lived a bunch of years during 110VAC then you might still call it that because that number got stuck in your head first.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/33 "2013-07-02T22:23:46Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> the voltage changed. though the values are plus/minus 10% so allowable values of old and new do overlap.
>
> if you lived a bunch of years during 110VAC then you might still call it that because that number got stuck in your head first.
Don’t get me started on 208. Or 277, for that matter.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/34 "2013-07-02T22:27:08Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Don’t get me started on 208. Or 277, for that matter.
WTF? Is that something weird in Oregon like not getting to pump your own 92.34 octane gas?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/35 "2013-07-02T22:53:52Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#):
>
> WTF? Is that something weird in Oregon like not getting to pump your own 92.34 octane gas?
See post #29.
That said, single phase 277 (480/277) is industrial voltage. One has to be careful in a building with this setup, as there will also be a 240/208/120 feed to handle receptacles and other circuitry. Exit lights work real well at 277, but only briefly. Industrial fluorescents don’t work at all on 120.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/36 "2013-07-02T23:39:58Z")
220, 221. Whatever it takes.
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/37 "2013-07-03T00:45:07Z")
Who wants to get out of bed to turn off the light?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/38 "2013-07-03T02:55:01Z")
> [@jasg](#):
>
> Who wants to get out of bed to turn off the light?
That’s why you have bedside lights. Try to keep up.
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/39 "2013-07-03T03:55:14Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> That’s why you have bedside lights. Try to keep up.
Huh? I thought my response was an valid answer to the question in the title of this thread.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-ovehead-lights-in-all-bedroom/662443/40 "2013-07-03T04:00:38Z")
> [@jasg](#):
>
> Huh? I thought my response was an valid answer to the question in the title of this thread.
Just a joke. Sorry.
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