Pardon my ignorance. I went to change out a normal light switch in our new nursery for a dimmer switch, and it appears the switch ALSO supplies power to the electrical outlets in the room, but DOESN'T control them.

The power is essentially just "passed through" the switch to the outlets. Naturally once I installed the dimmer it turned the lights on and off, but also the outlets.

What Dimmer do I need to let this outlet power pass through, while still being able to use the switch for the lights?

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Posted by mingoswamp

St. Louis

Member since Aug 2017

968 posts

Posted on 8/14/20 at 8:02 am to tigerfan311

Sounds like you should have a pigtail coming off your neutral & hot wire to feed the switch/light.

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Posted by MikeBRLA

Baton Rouge

Member since Jun 2005

16461 posts

Posted on 8/14/20 at 8:05 am to mingoswamp

quote:
Sounds like you should have a pigtail coming off your neutral & hot wire to feed the switch/light.

I agree. It’s not a matter of buying a different dimmer switch. It’s a matter properly wiring the new dimmer you bought.

Without a diagram of how it’s wired, it’s going to be impossible for us to know what’s going on.

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Posted by BeerThirty

Red Stick

Member since May 2017

898 posts

Posted on 8/14/20 at 8:07 am to tigerfan311

You have your outlets connected to the load side, they need to be tied into the line side. Should have 1 run coming in that’s your power, 1 going out to your lights, and 1 going to your outlets. The 2 black wires to your line side, and 1 (lights) to your load side.

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Posted by tigerfan311

Baton Rouge, LA

Member since Apr 2009

828 posts

Posted on 8/14/20 at 1:59 pm to BeerThirty

Makes sense. First time I've encountered this setup. Thanks.

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Posted by BeerThirty

Red Stick