[davespehar]

I am trying to wire 3 single pole light switches from one power source. Upon opening the box, I was shocked to see a cluster of wires and pigtails all stuffed inside. I was hoping that this would be a simple task, but I discovered that there were 5 separate lines going into the box. This is in my master bathroom. I have 2 sets of lights and an exhaust fan. The other 2 lines are to outlets in the master bedroom. I noticed that all 5 ground wires were twisted together and all the white wires from the 5 lines are all twisted in a nut. I labeled everything in hopes that when I wired them back up, it would all work. NO LUCK. I only have 1 hot wire. I twisted all 5 ground wires and all 5 white wires together as before. I have 5 black wires, 3 pigtails and frustration trying to wire them correctly into the switches so that I can have my lights, fan, and outlets functioning. Any ideas how to wire them so that they will work correctly?

[hkstroud]

I am assuming that the 3 pigtails are connected to two of the black wires.
If that is correct, connect the 3 pigtails to the 3 switches, connect the remaining 3 black wires to the other terminal of the switches.

If the 3 pigtails have been removed and you don't know which wire is the incoming hot, post back for directions of finding the hot.

[donf]

Dave,

I'm curious as to how old your home is. Do you have a multimeter that you can use to test voltage?

Good news / bad news. Bad news first. Bathroom branch circuits can only serve outlets within that bathroom. This means that the receptacle outlets in the bedroom are an electrical code violation and they should be removed from the bathroom circuit.

A little more help would be appreciated. Exactly, what is in in the outlet box? Switches that are fed from the ceiling circuit use "switch loops" At the ceiling, a white conductor is connected to the hot (black) supply conductor and routed to the supply side of the switch. The black conductor is connected to the fixture that it is going to feed. This is the return leg. At the switch, the black (return) is connected to the top screw on the switch. The white (supply) is connected to the bottom of the switch.

From what I read, it sounds like the white feed from the overhead outlet is brought to the switch outlet and then pigtailed to the switches. This sounds like exactly like what you are trying to accomplish. The one supply is feeding three connection points in the switch outlet, so I ask, why change the wiring?