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Outdoor outlet wiring help with black, red, and white

9K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  rogue6 
#1 ·
Hello. Forgive the long, non-technical description. I am trying to add an exterior outlet, as well as a switch.

Here's the background: I recently moved into a house that has exterior landscape lighting hooked up to a photo sensor. There is a box connected to the side of the house where the sensor is connected to the power supply. As stated in the title, there is a red, black, and white wire. I found the junction box in the basement that connects landscape light wires to the fuse box.

Here's my question: Can I add a gfci outlet and a switch in a 2 gang box, in place of the current simple connection? Currently there is no way to turn off the outdoor lights with out using the fuse box (15A). I'd like a way to be able to turn on and off. Also, I currently have no outdoor outlets, and this seems to be a possible spot.

If this is possible, how would I go about doing the connections. Thanks a lot for responses. This seems to be a unique situation, since all my searches came up fruitless.
 
#2 ·
Red black and white would indicate that the receptacle possibly was half switched. Is the tab cut on the gold screw side?

Can you describe more of the connections in the box with the red, black and white. Does it take two breakers to turn off all the power in that box?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Red black and white would indicate that the receptacle possibly was half switched. Is the tab cut on the gold screw side?
There was no initial outlet: Only a connection of a photosensor to the landscape wiring.

Can you describe more of the connections in the box with the red, black and white. Does it take two breakers to turn off all the power in that box?
There is only one breaker (a 20A, not a 15 as I thought).

I did some more investigation with the junction box in the basement. I noticed there are two lines coming out of the junction box to the outside that contain the r/b/w wires (I can't figure out where each goes once it leaves the basement). One of the lines' red wires is pigtailed to a set of black, and the other red is simply dangling in the junction box. When I tested it in the outside box, only the black was live. It appears that the wiring used for the landscape lighting outside is the only thing that contains a red wire, and I'm not sure if it is actually being used for anything. Again, my knowledge of switches and electrical is zilch.

So first question: Is the red wire needed to switch on the photosensor, or does it do that with only the black? I'm wondering if they just used wiring that had a red, but the red isn't really used.

Hopefully that clears something up. Thanks a lot.
 
#6 · (Edited)
So from what I can tell....both sets of r/b/w wires lead from the junction box to outside. The one set that leads to the outside box/photosensor is the one that has the red wire connected to the black wire in the junction box in the basement.

The other set of wires leads from the junction box to the landscape lighting. That is the set that has the red wire not connected to anything. Thanks again for helping a clueless guy.
 

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#7 · (Edited)
This may not be exactly your set up but may help. Your description is hard to understand about what is going on at your J-Box in the house.

Anyway In this diagram you have power coming into the J-Box via the cable marked POWER IN. The black wire of the POWER IN cable takes power outside to the switch and GFCI. The red wire at the switch location brings switched power back to the J-Box where it is then sent outside via the other cable.

The connections as shown will do what you want. The switch will control the landscape lights and the GFCI will be functional.

1st Note: no ground wires are shown for ease of drawing.

2nd Note: make sure you connect the wires to the LINE side of the GFCI
 

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#8 · (Edited)
If you could provide a picture or two and a clearer description of how many cables are going into the J-Box in your basement that may help. In your description you say there are 2 cables at the J-Box. One goes to the photoeye location and one goes to the landscape light location. Seems like there should be a third cable at that J-Box that brings power into the box like my above diagram shows.
 

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