In Defense of the Switched Outlet 

Alright, pinned comment time: Firstly, putting outlets on a dimmer switch is definitely not kosher. That’s why I said some folks might find that terrifying (it’s a good way to kill things that aren’t lamps), but I should have explicitly said this isn’t up to code. But here’s a list of options you have when one of these is in your life: •Obtain *lamp* and use it, occupying that plug and preventing confusion •Use an extension cord to relocate the lamp(s) away from the switched outlet when desired (within reason) •Don’t want a lamp? Try using it with items with vampire loads so that you can easily disable them when not needed. •How about a fan? Or something else? It doesn’t _have_ to be a lamp. •Don’t want it at all? Buy a “light switch guard” to cover the switch to keep it from being used. No need to mess with wiring, and just like that you’ve effectively disabled it. The moral of this video (though I perhaps overdid the delivery) is _you have options_ and you should use them! There’s no reason it needs to remain an annoyance in your life.

The heat is running, the snark levels are high, I'm prepared for some *hot takes*.

Back in the day, the computer room at my school had two light switches next to the door. One of them controlled the lights, and the other one controlled everything else. If you happened to lean against the wall right next to the door, your butt could accidentally poof everyone's unsaved work out of existence. Guess how I found out.

My biggest complaint about the switched outlets in my home is that, in literally every room, they are all in the wrong place.

Extra snark should be an entire series of things you’re frustrated by. Love this.

Getting very strong "My friend keeps complaining about this thing they could have fixed in less time than they've spent complaining" vibes from this one.

My folks renovated my childhood home before we moved into it. They gave my room a switched outlet for my bedside lamp, but I've since re-organized my room and now it's on my record player. Now I can set it up so I walk into my room, flip a switch, and have my music play 😎

Switches on outlets can server a similar purpose. Coming from the UK the switch can come in handy say if your lamp is up high so you don't have to reach up and turn it off, and some lamps don't even have built in switches. I know what you're saying that you could just unplug it, but it looks much untidier with plugs on the floor everywhere, it's much less trouble to just flick a switch than keep plugging and unplugging. I do love this idea though, we use mainly lamps and it would be nice to have them on a switch by the door.

While I'm not too bugged about switched outlets, what does bug me is the common practice of hanging overhead lights directly in the center of relatively small living and recreational spaces where furniture normally is against the walls facing into the room. This places the light in almost the least useful possible location when sitting, shining directly into the eyes and in the wrong direction needed for comfortable reading, etc. I much prefer having diffuse light distributed along the upper perimeter of the room, and/or reading lights in strategic places. It's much more comfortable and less fatiguing.

I thought light switches were only used to power-cycle smart bulbs?

Ok, free idea for outlet manufacturers: A duplex recepticle with a small (sliding recessed?) switch that lets you toggle one of the receptacles between the "always hot" and "switched" input terminals from the front. So now you can wire all both the "hot" and "switched" bus to every duplex outlet in a room, and the user can easily select which locations have a switched outlet and which are all always on. This isn't the cheapest to install, but it's by far the most flexible and frustration free for the user. (Especially if the mode toggle has a neat little indicator when the outlet is in switched mode.)

Would be neat if the bedside switch used an XOR gate like staircases sometimes do. I have this on my stairs and can turn the light on or off from either side, no need to remember anything.

My bedroom during my late kidhood had a switched outlet. I would rather have had a ceiling light. So I attached a lamp (really just a bulb socket on the end of a long cord) to the ceiling. Do not remember how I did it. Probably with a bunch of thumbtacks. Also covered the light with a small lampshade. probably with more thumbtacks involved. It was very kludgey, but it got the job done.

He's either joking about it being no effort, or just gotten really good at this. I love how you take a "boring mundane" subject like outlet switches and made it interesting.

I work for isp (been on phones and in the field) and the amount of people who plug their modems into these outlets is mind boggling and they always seem confused even when they've lived in the house for years. We were actually trained to ask if their internet goes out at night for around the same time every day for this reason.

OMG. I moved to the States from Europe 9 years ago and I just learned from this video that some of the outlets are not just dead… this is amazing hahaha. Why no one told me this before? Thank you

I used to have one of these switched outlets (in Europe). The PC was plugged into it. The switch was the flat kind, so it flipped when you leaned on it. It also happened to be right on the inner corner (it was an L-shaped room) where you'd lean to talk to the person using the computer. And it was before everything autosaved constantly. Many hours of work were lost to that switch.

Switched outlets are also really handy for holiday decorations

As an englishman moving to the US some years ago, I set up a tv and vcr, and I plugged the VCR into one of those switched sockets. Took me for ever to figure out why the VCR would never record anything while I was out!

I didn't even know switched outlets existed until now. I always just thought our bedroom had a dead outlet. Thank you so much for this information!

My dad's old apartment had one of these setups in the tiny 2x3 meter bathroom. There was only ONE outlet, that was attached to wall lamp above the mirror and every time he would charge his shaver he would have to leave the light on. Not useful at all for another lamp as there was no need! PS. Wow, you mentioned this at the end, got job!

Alec is so thorough with filming he leaves his camera facing his bed at all times in case he needs examples of him going to bed/sleeping.

To be honest, the switches on UK sockets are pretty useful because UK power plugs take a fair amount of force to remove, plus the resulting loose plug will maim you if you are careless enough to step on it.

I have one duplex like this in my house. It's being used for our Christmas tree, and it's very useful. It was also installed upside down to differentiate it from the others. Another use I found for a switched socket is a subwoofer. You can turn off the bass at night. I even labeled the switch "Bass".

My parents have one in their living room! Their living room actually has no ceiling or wall lights (its not huge, has a cathedral ceiling and one wall is entirely made of windows) so even at night, the ambient light was adequate enough to walk around in, but they did have a nice lamp on the shelf opposite the window wall connected to a switched outlet that would add an extra bit of lumination if duty called.

I'm not from the US and I've always found this very confusing when visiting. Every single time I enter a hotel room or friend's apartment I have to play "Guess which outlet is controlled by the light switch". But the colour coding seems like a good way to eliminate any confusion. That should have become a standard...much clearer than sometimes rotating the outlet.

Two things. One, that room design with the double half-grey outlets is SO FREAKIN GOOD! Two, it took me half the video to realize that the haggled looking dude with the crazy hair and t-shirt was still you. The ponytail and the suit go a long way! 😂

I laughed through most of this video and nodded enthusiastically through the rest. 11:21 The look on your face when you’re turning the switch on and off is absolutely hilarious! I grew up with switched outlets and for the most part love them. The only exception is in my bedroom where the switched outlet is almost directly below the light switch. Most other rooms it is at least 5 feet away, which isn’t ideal but is at least far enough away that a floor lamp can be put 8-10 feet away from the switch. So even though it’s on the same wall at least it’s still useful.

Let me just tell you how much I appreciate quality youtubers like yourself who, not omly deliver quelity videos, but also provide quality subtitles. I love it... LOVE it! Thank you!

The shots of Alec flipping a switch with varying degrees of crazy is so far my favorite part of no effort november. Thank you for that! Also still waiting for the day that I can wirelessly power my lamp so I can place it in the room wherever I darn please, without the need for annoying cable hooha or silly switch outlet placement.

I first learned of this in that Colombo episode when a fridge got plugged into the switched outlet by mistake. It was beyond baffling, like, "they must have invented this concept only for the movie, right?"

I would actually like to see XOR switched sockets become more common - a switch near the bed/desk and the door so you can turn on our off the lamp without crossing the room in the dark.

I love your rants about British electrical, you should do a whole video on it, maybe even on location! If you didn't already guess, I'm from the UK but I did live in Connecticut for a few years until recently. Ceiling lights are comparatively rare in the US. In the UK we have every room stuffed with ceiling lights: usually pendants or many multiple recessed downlights but sometimes track lights, strip lights, spot lights or surface mounts. Whatever the age of the building every room will have hard wired ceiling lights. In contrast in CT both my apartments (which were quite new) had no fixed lighting in the living areas or bedrooms. Only some feature lighting in the kitchen and 1 or 2 lights in the bathroom. Took some getting used to, the rooms were definitely darker even with multiple floor and table lamps.

As someone from Europe, where light switch outlets are virtually unknown, I always wondered why in movies when people switch the lights on all desk lamps and floor lamps switch on too. Now I know!

The only thing that annoys me about switch controlled outlets is that they generally aren't clearly marked. Floorplans sometimes change, what used to be a good spot for a lamp is no longer. So you forget that the outlet that was behind where the couch used to be is light switch controlled.

Just want to give huge appreciation for the full-effort subtitles, even in November.

I lived in a house where the outlet right by the front door was on a switch, but that's also where they retrofitted the internet coax cable to be screwed in, so that's which always had to be on because the alternative was to run the internet cable across the middle of the living room to the opposite side of the room in order to run both power and the internet signal into the modem

I absolutely understand why this is helpful, but I also think that these outlets should be visually separated from non-remote-switched outlets to make them less confusing. Like attach them to a separate face plate that's maybe a different colour or even just give them some telltale marking like a weirdly shaped earth hole. And you could even have the switched be visually distinct if you want. Edit: ESPECIALLY HOTELS

Man, I didn't know this was a head scratcher for some people. There was an era where houses omitted overhead lights and each room had switched outlets, but growing up the only switched outlet in my house was reserved for the Christmas tree at our bay window.

We have lamp switches in most living spaces even though only one room does not have an over head light. We also have a second switch next to our kitchen sink, the first being the sink disposal, but the second is hooked up to our dishwasher. So when a guest flipped it on accident it took us over a week to figure out why our dishwasher wouldn’t start. So now we have a trash can sticker under the disposal switch and a dishwasher sticker for the dishwasher.

So I'm a maintenance guy for a property management company. We have/had a couple places that had the switchable outlets. Being that I learned as I went I had no clue why there was a switch that seemingly did nothing. Then I changed out one of the outlets and wondered why. Luckily it hit me what application it was for and thought how brilliant that was. Thanks for the great and sparky video explaining this to some amount of the populace.

I love no effort November, the snark, the warning that there would be snark, and the film canisters on the desk from the last video. Great job as always!

Just want to appreciate that you write your own closed captions. They're accurate! (And sometimes funny... loved the musical scatting at the end there...) I wish more presenters would do it.

We have two switched outlets in the living room, in opposite corners far away from the entrance, each with a permanent outlet next to them, and we do use them for lamps. But before moving into this house, I never knew they were a thing.

You could put a nightlight in the switched outlet, if you don't feel like using it for a lamp. It's essentially like marking the outlet, but now the switch actually does something visible, so no one has to wonder what a switch does. Plus, if you have a lamp across the room that has its own switch, you at least have enough light to stumble across the room and find it.

I moved to Canada from Europe a few months ago and now I know why I have extra light switch and strange outlet that I thought wasn't working... And I needed the switch and an outlet for the floor lamp! THIS IS GENIUS! Now I use the outlet and switch properly and want to have this in every room. Thank you Technology Connections.

My dad's house had these! Literally every room except the kitchen and bath were all lit through switched outlets. It was a completely normal way of living for me until I started visiting friends' houses that had lights on the ceiling! It was a fascinating futuristic fixture for me, until I learned that the house I lived in was actually the odd one out

I finally know what the weird random switch in my apartment is for! I never connected that it was associated with the seemingly dead outlet, and now happily have my lamp plugged into it.

My frustrations are not from confusion, but... 1) I feel like every room should have an overhead light, even if you rarely use it, for emergencies, cleaning, and - especially for apartments! - when moving in and out. 2) The builder of the home must decide where you want to put your lamp. If they (inevitably) guess wrong, you have to re-wire your home (or apartment?). My last apartment, bedrooms only had switched outlets. You'd turn on the light switch, walk across the room and turn on the lamp you actually wanted in the other corner, then go back to the switch. 3) I like the idea of the convenience, but once I'm familar with a space, it's no trouble for me to walk across a dark room and switch on a light, and usually there's light from elsewhere in the house shining in to help you see.

A previous apartment of mine had the worst implementation of this. Basically the entire living room had its outlets on one switch. When I moved in I almost filed a maintenance request because I couldn’t figure out why all the outlets in my living room were broken. Worst part was that unknowing friends would flip the switch when leaving, turning off the router, tv, everything. I eventually just bought a cover.

10:01 "We just lost cabin pressure."

My parents' house has a switch in their living room that controls an outlet at the carport. All their Christmas lights get plugged into it and they can turn them on and off from inside the house. It's very convenient and I plan to add a switch to my outdoor outlet for the same reason.

A lot of newer or renovated places have gotten rid of switched outlets, but I've actually used wireless (not wifi) remotes to turn some outlets into switched outlets. The remote even makes it easier, since you can usually control multiple outlets with one remote. At my last place, I used velcro strips to mount the remote near the entrance to the bedroom, that way I could turn on my bedside lamps with that switch, then bring the remote with me to bed and turn them off without ever messing with the lamp's switch. These little remotes are also renter friendly, so you can take them from place to place!

My pet peeve is when the switched outlet is in the most convenient location... for something else. Like in a friend's house (built in the mid-late 1980's) the switch for the living room controlled the outlet for the middle of the long wall opposite the entryway. The perfect place to set up the TV games system, and such.

Apparently, my previous home was a "No Effort November" build. The switched outlet in the main bedroom was awkwardly close to the door. You'd probably trip over the cord if you plugged a lamp into it. No surprise. Many outlets throughout the house were in odd locations relative to the layout of the rooms. Bare minimum of code was met and that's about it.

1:20 Some things do spark when you plug them in to a live socket vs. plugging them in to a socket that's been switched off. In the uncommon event that I move my desktop PC for example, I turn off the power supply and the wall socket. Plug the cable into the wall and into the power supply. Then turn on the wall socket and then the power supply. If it's all on then there is a small electrical "click" sound when plugging the cable into the power supply. If the power supply is off but the wall socket is on, this click sound is slightly quieter. It's likely fine but it feels uncomfortable. It's nice to have everything definitely off while you're plugging stuff in and turn it on only when needed

I'm quite happy with the Australian way of having a switch right next to every outlet. Easy to control standby power, by cutting it off at the powerpoint, and without having to fumble for a plug evey time you want to turn the devices back on again. Also because the switch is next to the outlet, there's zero confusion over which switch operates which outlet.

I'm not from the US and hadn't heard of these switches before. It honestly sounds really cool! I rarely use floor/table lamps outside my bedroom because they're a pain to turn on and off. This makes it much easier to use them all the time.

To your point on rooms with no ceiling lights, I remember one house I looked at when moving in the early winter (so the sun set very early) where the living room was made to be lit with lamps on a switch. Only problem was that the house wasn’t furnished, so me and the realtor had to use our phone flashlights to look around.

Yep, we call it a light bill here in TX. It's very common in hotels, but for some annoying reason, apartment living rooms rarely have ceiling lights, at least down here anyway, so you always have that necessary outlet in the room that's tied to a switch by the front door, since lamp(s) are then the only way to get light in the room. Lamps are good for reading or just for a little light, but I do like having a ceiling or ceiling fan light for room-wide lighting. I don't have any such outlets in my place, but thanks for the tip on making an outlet half live and half switched, that is pretty cool! It would be more complicated, but you could do a double switch to the bedside lamps like you sometimes see with a stairway light where the top and bottom of the stairs both have a switch. It would mean having an oddly-placed switch near the bed, but... is a way out, and would control both lamps because reaching WAY across the bed for the other lamp is WAY too much trouble >>:=p Wait... a dimmer switch tied to a plug... ummm... that sounds a tad bizarre.

I didn't know some folks hated these. I always considered them a handy bonus. If for some reason I don't want the outlet off I don't turn the switch off. Only (related) thing I don't like is how some places build in like zero lights and go for all outlets. I like having some basic lights to flip on if I just want to light the room up. For ambience I prefer the indirect lighting of a floor lamp shining up and bouncing off the ceiling. Easier on the eyes.

I do remember when I was a small child back in the 80's, my parents being confused by an electrical outlet that was controlled by a light switch. They ended up plugging the television into that outlet and just taping up the switch so that it couldn't be switched off. However when I moved into my own place as an adult, it seemed pretty obvious to me what the purpose of the switched outlet was, and I used it to control a floor lamp.

My apartment is wired like this (Including the poor both-sides-of-the-outlet wiring), and it's *extremely* annoying because the outlets are often in the most convenient locations for... things that aren't LAMP, while where I want to put LAMP is just. A regular outlet. And, as pointed out, they're the ones closest to the switch because of course they are. I _do_ actually like the concept of switched outlets for LAMP, because I come in the room, hit the light switch, and then bam. Light. My frustration always comes from poor implementation of it, which seems to be the more common occurence.

The only switched outlet in my house is an outdoor one. The only reason it’s on a switch is so you can turn on and off the Christmas lights from inside.

Interesting idea. In the UK, with almost all outlets having a switch on them, many people are in the habit of leaving the switches on even when the item is removed (a bad habit, but not that dangerous due to the shuttered design). The fact of being able to switch off without removing the plug is a convenience thing, but, I agree, it doesn't make that much difference. There are a few places where you will sometimes find a separate (sometimes adjacent, sometimes a distance away) switch for an electrical outlet, but usually this is for items that are permanently connected, like bathroom extractor fans, electrical supply to a gas boiler (= US: 'Furnace') or similar, or for a fridge which has a plug socket behind it in an inaccessible place. In some hotels, they seem to follow the American idea of switches by the door controlling bedside lamps, and I understand that, though, in most cases, they are permanently wired in.

One of the reasons power outlets in other countries have switches on them is to avoid arcing when you plug something in. We were always taught to plug in the device first , then turn on the switch.

I’m from the UK and I always thought the switches on plug sockets that you ranted about were to stop you unplugging anything. There are a lot of good design decisions in the three pin plug, but the huge downside is they lie flat and if you’ve ever stepped on one (which everyone here will have at some point) you’ll realise why, in this country, the phrase isn’t “stepped on a Lego brick”.

I've been using smart bulbs that is remotely controlled with a smart dimmer where the light switch is. Now all sockets are switched sockets. Some riomes have multiple lamps on different sides of the room. No voice control needed. Normal looking switch

I didn’t know switch-controlled outlets were a thing until I moved to my current apartment and I hate them with a passion because it’s not just one plug, it’s the top plug for *every* outlet in the room. (So by your advice, I need to go buy 10 lamps, 5 for the living room and 5 for the bedroom lol) I don’t need that many lamps. The only benefit is my Christmas decor is now on the light switch

The problem I have with switched outlets is in most houses they aren’t placed in a “lamp” spot, but a random outlet.

Local city utility here is still called the Board of Water and Light. Which sounds like a minor D&D magic item.

My apartment mostly has outlets linked to switches because lamps are, indeed, a thing, and they didn't install ceiling fixtures in the living room, the bedroom, or the loft. 2:25 Speaking of the garbage disposal monster - Next to my kitchen sink there's a panel of three switches: One for the over the sink fluorescent light, one for the dishwasher, and one for an outlet under the sink in case there was a disposal. Since there's no disposal, I make use of that GFCI outlet for the air compressor for my airbrushes, running a longer air hose to the dining room, where it splits into three receptacles so I can switch between brushes on the fly. I added some extra foam to the cupboard door and back wall to reduce the noise to less than the dishwasher, without compromising air flow for cooling it.

Smart plugs have been an amazing thing. I was skeptical, but having them now, it's awesome.

This is honestly one of the main reasons I've gone all in on smart lights: I can place lights and the controls for them anywhere, independent of each other, and not limited to where some guy thought I might want to put a lamp 50 years ago.

Swiss here: We also have switched outlets commonly AND they’re usually marked! Usually, there’s a small switch symbol _/ _ next to the switched outlet. As outlets here come mostly in sets of three (and I have yet to see one where more than one is switched), I have never been frustrated by having a switched outlet. I was, however, occasinally frustrated in the few places where one switch controls both overhead and all switched outlets for a room...

My house has a switched outlet in every room and we never used lamps so it was frustrating to accidentally plug something important into one. Recently, it turned into a blessing in disguise when I wanted to install smart switches and learned there was no neutral in any of my switch boxes. The switch controlling an outlet has to run a wire to the outlet box that has a neutral. If I turn the switched outlet into a normal always on outlet, I can repurpose the now unused wire to run neutral back to my switch boxes. No new wiring required for my smart switches!

Smart bulbs in a lamp with a wall switch is bliss. Flip them on, lay down, say smart home - lights off, next day, switch off and back on to toggle that lights back on. Best of both worlds

Our lovely switched outlet is controlled by 2 switches! For the first year of living in this house, we had a switch that seemed to do nothing. Weirdly, there was a second switch that also seemed to do nothing! We found out what the useless switches were for when the outlet we plugged the Christmas tree into didn’t work. We spent a few hours looking into it. Then, a few hours later, I decided to fidget with the do-nothing switch… and suddenly the Christmas tree worked! So that was fun.

There are lamps that have digital switches that default to ON after power is cut to them. This allows you to turn the lamp off at the lamp and then flip the wall switch off and on and BAM lights are on. Of course most of these lamps (and ceiling fans) have remotes.

Love this ep. Agreed with every point. Let me just say, once you have a nice array of recessed lights that are dimmable and color-temp controlled, there's no need for floorlamps anymore. That was the only and only reason I got sick of having switched outlets in my house. If I want to vary up the lighting, I can change individual lights or even animate effects across the array, and do this per room.

I had an office in a room in the basement that tended to be cold in the winter, so I got a space heater for it. I was terrified that the space heater would be a fire hazard, so I put in several safeguards: I put the heater on a heavy-duty timer that could only turn off (I removed all the "on" tabs), *and* I put the timer in a switched outlet. While I had too many lamps to turn off with that switch (even with overhead lighting, I didn't think it had enough light), I nonetheless *greatly* appreciated that switched outlet!

The reason I had an adverse reaction to this type of switch and still somewhat do is because when I moved out and into my first place (which is also where I currently reside) I found out the main light switch in my apartment does this. But the problem comes from the fact that it's for literally every single plug in the living room, which is also my gaming room and the room with internet. I'm in a one bedroom apartment so I use the living room as my game room and sleep area, where the actual room is designated to my cat and various set pieces for filming. So when I get home I have to fight the urge to flip that switch every time I walk in the door or risk shutting off every electronic I have. Is it fair to dislike these switches for that reason? No. But do I dislike every switch I know like this because I only know this one switch? Yes.

I think that one of the issues that many people have is that, in most homes, there's just far fewer outlets than you'd expect, and half of them are probably covered up by furniture that's been drilled into the wall or is so heavy that you won't be able to move without help. Because most people don't really think about where they put their furniture. I'm not in the US but in my apartment, quite literally every single outlet is covered up by furniture because the previous owners thought they were ugly apparently. I cannot even imagine finally finding an outlet that isn't in an incredibly inconvenient place only to find out that it's a switch outlet.

The house I grew up in had one of these in the basement (at the time I had no idea it was intentional), but the weird thing was _the same switch also controlled the pot lights in the ceiling._ So it was very funny when we plugged in our Christmas tree and the lights immediately turned on, then we went to turn off the lights in the room to see just the tree turned on, and it turned of with them. That's why it never occurred to me to plug in a lamp, because that was the exact opposite of what the switch let us do

My bedroom has 3 or 4 split switched outlets and I love them. I use two for lighting and one of those power my tech (PC, printer, charger, etc.) on the non-switched side. My only problem is how far the switch is away from the door: within arm's reach when you walk in or out, but farther than you think it should be.

I am an Australian living in America. I am very slowly coming around to switched outlets. Unfortunately, some previous owner of my apartment thought it made sense to have a switched outlet in the bathroom. This just makes no sense. At all. We still have over head lights, but having the only outlet in the bathroom also switched is more frustrating than anything else. So I'm okay with them in principle, but so far I have found them more frustrating than practical.

a fun fact we were reminded of while setting up the christmas tree yesterday is that one of the switched outlets in our living room (which is, by the way, literally directly below the switch by the front door) just refuses to work at all if there's anything plugged into the top plug of the outlet on the other side of the room. but that's less a problem with switched outlets themselves and more the fact that our house was assembled by a crack team of monkeys in utility belts and has all sorts of fun easter eggs like that

We had those type of outlets in our old home that was built in the 1950s. I actually switched some of the light switches to smart switches so I could voice control the lamps in a given room.

Only technology connections would have a snark warning. We absolutely love it.

My American 50s house has been wired for floor lamps controlled by a "light switch" by the front door and stairs between the main and second floor. Without realizing, my wife plugged the cat's water fountain into the switched outside. Sometimes the water gets shut off, mostly by us, but sometimes one of the cats switches the water off when the other cat is drinking. I'm amazed they know to do that, and that they spite each other this way. Lmao

I was a residential electrician for a number of years and the number of people who would call and complain when they moved into their new house that some of the outlets were upside down and forced us to flip them back over so they're all the same was aggravating. We started taking a magic marker and putting some sort of mark on the receptacle that was switched and they would even complain about that.

The main thing that annoys me about our switched outlets is they're all connected to the full outlet (only half would be amazing!) and they're all super inconvenient. The best place for my wife to put her computer is where the switched outlet is so we had to cover that switch to keep it turned on at all times. But really they're just minor annoyances at first until you take care of it. I don't know why you would just live with the annoyance permanently and let it continue to annoy you.

Great rant! Your video brought to mind that I had designed a 3way switched floor lamp with only the addition of minor circuitry and a special duplex plug (plugs into both outlets, switched and fixed, with a back side outlet of its own on the fixed side so its still available) and the lamp could always be switched on or off at either the lamp or the wall. I never did anything with the idea, so I'll share it here and someone may do it (or you might for a video) In principle, the power to the lamp bulb is controlled by a 2 bit logic circuit at outlet voltage levels. For the truth table, S is the wall switch and can be 1 on or 0 off, and L is is the lamp switch and can be 1 NO (normal open) or 0 NC (normal connected) (lamp switch becomes SPDT rather than SPST ). States: S1 L1 Lamp on S0 L1 Lamp off S1 L0 Lamp off S0 L0 Lamp on You can build this logic with 1 line voltage driven SPDT solid state relay (SSR) and associated passives, and one SPDT line voltage rated switch. The switch NO and NC go to the NO and NC sides of the relay, with this switch common C going to the bulb. The relay common comes from the fixed power side, with the NO wired to the NO side of the switch and the NC wired to NC. Relay RS coil is energized from the switched source (so the wall switch) going back to the switched neutral, switching the fixed source to be delivered to NO pole of the relay. The bulb is lit when the lamp switch is "ON" NO to C Since the lamp switch common pole goes to the bulb. Switching the lamp switch "OFF" switches the bulb power to the NC side, which isn't energized due to the relay powering NO. Turning the wall switch is off turns off the coil, so the relay switches to powering the NC. If the lamp was previously switched to NO (and so was on) now the bulb goes out, otherwise now it turns on. Packaging: The relay should reside in the wall plug block or the lamp base, with 3 wires going up to the switch (Relay NO, Relay NC, Neutral, plus ground?) and 2 wires Neutral and switch common going to the bulb. The wires from the relay to the switch can be swapped without change of function aside from lamp switch direction if a toggle. There, problem solved.... You ranted, so I ranted :)

Here in Australia, it's simple, every room has a ceiling light and all outlets are switched at the outlet.

I remember as a kid, one of my family member's house would just tape the switch to the ON position so no one would accidentally turn it off in a room because they needed the device on that outlet to be powered at all time and the room itself didn't have any other outlets to use outside of that switched one. Those switches really could get in the way in those cases with limited outlets.

I only use the overhead light in the kitchen and the (infrequently used) dining room. Lamps everywhere else. What I ended up doing was setting up my bedroom and living room with lamps on timers that line up with the times I usually end up in those rooms. None of my outlets are switched so this was the compromise without rewiring the entire house

I love my two switched outlets in my living room. Unfortunately my lamp doesn't like the switch and will only turn on if I use the switch on the lamp. But I put fairy lights behind my curtains and a tapestry on the wall. Now I can turn on all the fairy lights via a switch instead of turning all three sets on individually. It also works great with the Christmas tree!

Switches ON outlets are honestly really useful here in South Africa where we often get scheduled power cuts that can damage appliances. It is nice to be able to switch expensive sensitive devices off in one place (especially if they are all connected to the same outlet via a multiplug) without killing the entire breaker. I guess you could also unplug stuff, but I reckon a switch is less inconvenient considering these power cuts happen multiple times a day.

I'm an AV installer and we wall mount TVs and often install new outlets to hide the wires. We have run into some cases where customers have switched outlets that we have to tap off of. Most of the time, there's a hot outlet that we can tap off of but the few times that we can't it's a crap shoot whether or not the customer is going to get heated because they don't understand how their house is wired. Thanks for making these videos so more people understand what's behind their wall!

the UK system works really well. Our lamp switched sockets are on a separate circuit rated only to 5A. They use different plugs so you know they are the lamp circuit and you cant accidentally plug a hoover into it and blow the circuit! Also the switched circuits in the bedroom also have a proper light switch by the bed so rather than use the switch on the lamp, you can switch the whole circuit and therefore each light switch works as intended with none of the bedtime nonsense you were describing in this video.