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I have a dimmer switch which is also controlling the outlet. Now when I dim the light and something is plugged in the outlet my ceiling lights start flickering. I want to make my outlet always hot. Attached are the pictures of wiring. enter image description here

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  • No pictures shown.
    – JACK
    Nov 25, 2019 at 18:55
  • Hi, in addition to posting images, please give your location (country) so we know what sort of electrical source we're dealing with. Also: was it this way when you moved in, or have you done some equipment replacment on your own?
    – Carl Witthoft
    Nov 25, 2019 at 19:00
  • Added the pictures. It's in US.
    – Krishna sharma
    Nov 25, 2019 at 19:13
  • It is this way only since I moved in.
    – Krishna sharma
    Nov 25, 2019 at 19:22
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    Heh, your thumb happens to be blocking the most important part of that outlet picture... A normal outlet will have a small tab that connects the two screw contacts on each side of an outlet. Is that tab in place or has it been broken off? Is the top and bottom of the outlet both switched or is it only half switched?
    – JPhi1618
    Nov 25, 2019 at 20:14

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This is easy

Fortunately, it appears that always-hot is present at the receptacle location in your case, so fixing the daftness the prior installers pulled (NEC 404.14(E) prohibits dimming general-purpose receptacles if nothing else does, for reasons that range from mere flickery lights to appliances that express their displeasure at being dimmed by getting rather...hot under the collar) is no great challenge for you.

Simply remove all the wires from the receptacle, attach a white pigtail (12AWG stranded THHN always works for pigtails in general wiring if you don't know what to get) to the existing white wires with a suitable wirenut, use another wirenut to attach the black and red wires that went to the receptacle together, undo the taped splice of the two black wires, use another wirenut and a black pigtail to pigtail off of that, and wire up the receptacle with the black pigtail on a brass screw, the white pigtail on a silver screw, and the bare ground pigtail on the green screw. Button everything back up, turn the power back on, and enjoy your now not-so-dim receptacle!

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  • Thanks @ThreePhaseEel. Sorry I am a newbie. So lil confused. There are 2 black wires which are taped together. So I take out on of them and wire it in receptacle and tape the another one ? Also, the existing black and red which are going into the receptacle need to be wired together into wirenut ? There are 2 white wires going into outlet. So need to wire them together with a pigtail ? Thanks.
    – Krishna sharma
    Nov 26, 2019 at 1:53
  • @Krishnasharma -- the two white wires get connected to a white pigtail with a wirenut after being unhooked from the receptacle, the black and red wires that were connected to the receptacle get nutted to each other, and then the lonely taped black wire has its tape removed, and then there's just black, white, bare left to connect to the receptacle.
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Nov 26, 2019 at 1:59
  • Unfortunately, there are 3 black wire in the junction box. One is connected to the receptacle and other two are tied together and taped.
    – Krishna sharma
    Nov 26, 2019 at 5:13
  • @Krishnasharma -- edited the answer to take that into account
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Nov 26, 2019 at 12:31
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    Also, use a new receptacle. They are $2 and in general shouldn't be reused when doing this kind of work
    – JPhi1618
    Nov 26, 2019 at 16:00

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