Re: Need SMALL X10 wall switch

["wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm a newbie here but as I have done a fair bit of straight house
> rewiring (UK) I did wonder whether your switch could be wired in to
> the circuit but higher up.. as in under the floor boards  (if you have
> any).. near the light socket..

Ugh, just yank out the current boxes and put in new ones.  Yes, it's messy
and you really have to be EXTRA careful with the exposed insulation on the
old BX wiring.  But by the time you screw around with trying to bury other
modules in the circuits it'll become obvious new boxes are less work.

Think about it, a great many circuits in older homes are randomly setup with
either power to the box itself or just a switch leg.  That and they're just
as likely to be setup in some sort of daisy-chain of multiple rooms (and not
in a sensible fashion either).  The latter is probably the best reason to
just bite the bullet and rewire, not just the box but whole circuits.  Not
necessarily the entire panel but it may be worth getting a quote for it.

The arrangement of circuits in many old houses often doesn't work for modern
use patterns.  I've seen bathrooms tied into the kitchen circuits and then a
nearby bedroom.  Worked well when nobody had hair dryers or curling irons
along with microwave ovens, toasters and coffee makers.  And worse yet,
these days all of them are likely to get used simultaneously.  "Pop goes the
breaker..."

The real questions are ones of accessibility and ability to convince the
spouse of the need.  A few well-placed "gee honey, look at how dry-rotted
these old wires are!" comments usually do the trick.  And it's not just hype
either, a DIYer fiddling around in these crammed old boxes with that fragile
old insulation is very likely to make mistakes that present real risk of
fire.

This as opposed to the relatively brain-dead process of taking a sawzall to
the wall, cutting out the old box, fishing some new romex (or BX if you
like) and patching it up again.  It's really not that hard to do.  Think
about it, if your average contractor can do it, how hard could it be?
<grin>  That said, a licensed electician is always well worth consulting for
such projects.

Yes, this can be a real pain in multistory dwellings with no nearby access
spaces like basement joists or attic rafters.  Or, as another poster
replies, when there's lots of concrete involved.

Give it some thought.

-Bill Kearney