I am having trouble changing an electrical outlet in my bathroom. Currently there is a switch that controls the ceiling light. I am trying to replace the switch with a switch/receptacle combo.

The box has 5 wires in it--2 black--these were attached to the original switch, and 2 white that were twisted together and taped off and a ground wire.

The switch/receptacle combo has 5 screws to attach the wires to . One side has a silver screw, a gold screw and a ground screw. The other side has 2 black screws on it.

When I tried to install the new receptacle the first time the pilot light on the new switch came on but it would not turn on the light--I was using the gold screw and the silver screw and the two black wires.

The second time I tried I attached the black wires to the black screws--the ceiling light was on and would not turn off. The pilot light on the switch was not on.

The third time I attached one black to the gold screw and one white to the silver screw. This time nothing worked.

I would like the receptacle to work independently from the switch.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Heather

This is like the logic problem where you have a fox, chicken and a boat... oh forget it.. it's a nerd joke. Let's try and simplify things a little.

You have two pairs of wires going to your old switch. One wire pair will be power. The second wire pair will be the wire to the light. The switch is connected between the black 'power' wire and the black 'light' wire. The two white wires are connected together.

You will need to figure out which wire is which. More often than not, the wire coming into the box from above at the back of the box will be the wire to the light, and the wire coming into the box from below will be power wire. Its better to check the wires with voltage tester for sure... but if you don't have one then hopefully this would help you in your first guess.

Ok - your new contraption has a bunch of terminals. I've never seen one. I am assuming there are no directions... and there is nothing written on the terminals? That would be too easy! :-)

By convention, light coloured (i.e. silver) terminals should be the neutral terminals. (i.e. connect white wire there). Any other terminal on the same side as that should also be a neutral terminal... but I am surprised they chose a brass colour.

Do you know if this is a GFI as well? They are mandatory in Canada for bathrooms, but you may have difficulty because you're one ground wire short.

So my guess is that you should connect the white from the 'power' wire to the silver terminal. Connect the black wire from the 'power' wire to the black screw in the same position on the opposite side of the switch. (i.e. if the silver terminal is the lower terminal on one side, then connect the black wire to the lower of the two black screws on the other dside.) Then connect the black from the 'light' wire to the other black screw. I don't know why you have a brass screw above the silver screw. My first gues would be to connect the white 'light' wire to the same silver terminal. That should work, but will screw things up if the new receptacle is a GFI - in which case try connecting it to the terminal above the silver terminal.

The bare copper wire goes onto the ground screw.

Let us know how that goes.

To help clarify, what is the make and model number of the device you are trying to connect?

It is a Cooper Combo device--single pole switch grounding receptacle--274W-BOX

Its makes much more sense now that I see a picture of it.
COOPER WIRING DEVICES 274W-BOX SWITCH SP W/GD OUTLT WHT

Put both whites on the silver terminal. (to do this correctly, you'd use a pigtail - i.e. marrette both whites together with a third short wire between the marrette and the silver terminal)
Black wire from power goes on either of the black screws. Doesn't matter which.
Black wire to light goes on the brass screw.
Ground goes to green.

If this doesn't work first try, then swap the two black wires - it means we guessed wrong on which one was power.

I finally got a chance to try the advice and the light worked but the receptacle did not--so I switched the black wires and still the light works and the receptacle did not. Could both wires be "power" wires?

I borrowed a voltage tester and tested the wires. Both of the black wires are "hot". Can I just pigtail them together like I did the white wires?

Hmm... that doesn't make sense. You should not have two hot wires in one box.

I think you might be tricked by finding that both wires are hot when the switch is 'on'. Try switching the light off and see if both are still hot.

Can you please take a close look at the two black screws. The plates that they are screwed into should be connected together by a little tab. Is the tab still there? You can use your tester to tell for sure. With all wires connected as described in the previous post, does the tester light up when you touch one black screw and a neutral or ground... and then light up again when you touch the other black screw and a neutral/ ground?

Actually, you can see the tab in this picture. It is the brass thing between the two screws on the right hand side.

Ace Hardware Outlet

You were right--I just checked it with the light off and only one wire was hot. There was a tab but I removed it when I tried to install it the first time (before I came here). Could the missing tab be the problem?

Yes. The tab carries the electricity between the two devices. No tab means either the plug or light will work - not both. You can change which device works by moving the black wire from one black screw to the other.

You have two options
a) bring it back and change it for another one ("hey, I didn't notice this tab was broken when I bought it") or
b) connect a short length of black wire from one black screw to the other. I'll leave others to say if this meets 'code' in the US.

I tried moving the wire to the other black screw and the receptacle still did not work--is there a way to test just the recpetacle part? I have a 2nd combo switch because I thought that the tab might be the problem--so I will swap them out. Is there a way to install this so that the receptacle will work even if I turn the lights off?

If it did not work the first time, then try swapping the two black wires.

I installed the new switch and both the receptacle and the lights work. Is there a way to make the receptacle and the switch work independently of each other? I was doing this so I could have a night light in the bathroom... and rtw_travel, thank you for all your help with this

If you connect the incoming hot wire directly to the outlet, and then feed the switch from it, the outlet should be hot all the time. If the outlet only has one brass screw, wire nut 2 short lengths of black wire to the incoming hot wire and connect the short lengths of wire to the brass screw of the outlet and one switch screw.

I'll say what labman said... but do it slightly differently.

I think you have the two black wires reversed still.

There are only two ways to connect the black wires: one to the brass screw and one to black screw... or vice versa. Wired one way will mean that the switch will turn on the light and the plug together. Swap the black wires and the plug will always be hot and switch will only work the light.

You're welcome for the help so far - that is what this site is all about.

I finally got a chance to switch the black wires and that did the trick! Thanks again for the help!!