where do you make-up the power ? switch box or overhead juction/or fixture box. i prefer to power in at a swith box rather the overhead.when i kill the switch, then i will know the fixture/ box wiring is dead.

SWITCH I hate to work over head any longer than needed to! Lights fed hot at the light fixture box in residential is for the olden day era. In comercial work it can go either way...........Brian

As ZR600 stated the old homes are fed at the light. I like hitting the switch myself for a couple of reasons, like ZR said, less labor overhead also there's always gangable boxes were if the load allows u can feed everything right there, or hop to another switch. The old over head systems had the spyder wiring too, where everything came to the center of the room and tailed down to all devices in that room. But there's the switched outlet, where a lot of electricians wire the end of the line outlet to the switch for a switch leg and identify it.

To illustrate:

In my apartment, the lightbulbs in the bathroom and foyer are fed from the ceiling and the switch is on a loop.

In the bedroom, the juice comes in through the wall switch, goes up to the lightbulb and from there branches out a receptacle in the wall and the spur that goes the bathroom light.

This is a 50-plus year-old installation. Wonder if that's too many splices in that ceiling box....

I prefer to go to the switch first. In some cases I feed the light, but it's rare. My main opposition comes from my past when I used to install ceiling fans primarily. I hated having to remove a hanger bar box with more than one wire. Also for the same reason, we won't use a hanger bar in a room where a fan might be installed in the future.

thanks for the input guys, i just wanted to clarify that the switch power-in way is better.

I will occassionally use switch loops, especially if conductor box-fill is a concern for the switchbox (multi-gang).

Do it at the switch box. if you're doing a Romex job & plan ahead, you can do the ceiling box with one trip up the ladder.

Tom

Definitely at the switch box.

We do a lot of home automation work, (mainly using stuff from GE Interlogix), which requires a neutral at the switch, so pulling to the switchbox at least gives us a chance of getting things working the way the rep promised them it would!

I would like to expand this question to half switched outlets. I use 3wire at the all the outlets, so I have the option to switch any outlet if needed or if a customer changes their mind on which one they want to control. Am I being overkill by doing this? Or am I better off just picking one outlet location and running a two wire back to a switch?

Nothing like taking 2 hours to hang a light fixture and then finding out thats where your bad splice is. I do all my splicing at the switch now.

Spyder;
I think a 3-wire to the outlets in said rooms like bed rms liv rms is a great method. Makes a better installation like you said for changing the room around.

I try as much as possible to make-up in boxes which are "At Floor Level" - like Switches, Receptacles, etc.

Nothing sucks more than having to stand on a Ladder to do make-up!

Scott s.e.t.

I do it at the switch.
does anyone else mark the "hot" cable coming into the j-box.

in the rough in, I put a piece of black electrical tape around the hot cable.
Is this leagal???

spyder,

When it's iffy what the home-owner may want, I have been known to do as you said with switched receptacles and run 12-3.

On bid jobs with plans, they get exactly what's on the plan. Anything else is a change order. Period. (I'm getting tougher in my "old age"). Then, of course, it's simpler to run a switch loop if only one location is to be switched.

As always, I take each and every situation and weigh the pros and cons of each method.

Usually, but not always, I run the neutral through the switchbox.

What I'll do with the ceiling boxes is to install a fan rated box. Installed directly to a 2x6 cat across two ceiling headers. This is in case they decide to install a fan later on. I might run a 3 wire up to the fan box, and cap the red leg, so it's there if I need it.
Happy Holidays

switch loops are controversial, or at least in the art 200 white 'permanent' reidentification realm.

Personnaly, i have little sympathy for whatever sector of the public there is that cannot deal with a white, black & bare in a box.... and would require us to rethink this method.

the guys with the guass meters , however, are an entirely different trip....

In areas where it is forseeable that a ceiling fan may be added i feed the ceiling first, usually i feed the outlets from the ceiling in this situation