What's this light switch cover called?

[jagr10]

Ok, you know how in some buildings and schools they have this clear plastic or glass cover over a light switch so that nobody can mess around with the switch? What's that thing called and where can I find one?

I need one in my apartment. The switch in this room controls one of the outlets so if you turn the switch on or off, anything plugged into that outlet will go on or off. I have some stuff plugged in, but everyone forgets and turns the switch off which is annoying.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Encryptic]

A light switch cover?

 

[Gage]

It's called a wall switch lockout. You can get one here.

Home Depot

 

[sharkeeper]

Take the switch out and wirenut both wires together, put switch back in.

-DAK-

 

[PowerMacG5]

A piece of tape usually does the job of keeping someone from moving a switch (well, it depends what kind).

 

[YingYang]

If I were you, I'd find another outlet to plug the stuff you don't want to turn off. The light switch as the name implies is to turn the light on/off. You are defeating the purpose of the light switch by getting a light switch cover.

 

[her209]

Get a LightSwitch Club.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: her209
Get a LightSwitch Club.

With special introductory offer of compatible AlarmBuster 2000!

 

[y00ycdz]

Duct Tape the switch to the off position. Make sure it's all nice and sticking well.

 

[fs5]

use some tape and put a paper over with the word NO! Worked for me!

 

[herrjimbo]

it's usually only the top outlet that is controlled by the switch. either replace the whole outlet, or as said earlier, wire nut the switch wires.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: Gage
It's called a wall switch lockout. You can get one here.

Home Depot

That will work fine.
We used to have clear plastic covers on some of the AS400s so you couldn't flip the switch accidentally, but you could reach in over/under the cover to throw the switch if you needed to.

 

[Dowfen]

Yes, most likely you can just fix it by finding out which wire goes to the outlets and which goes to the power, then either twist them together with a connector or wire it correctly on the switch (with the power off of course). Advice only - be careful with electricity and I take no responsibility whatsoever for your actions.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
Take the switch out and wirenut both wires together, put switch back in.

-DAK-

Exactly.

I did this two years ago when I discovered the only convenient outlet to plug my answering machine into was controlled by a wall switch.

Now, it's not!

 

[jagr10]

The reaon why the light is connected to the one outlet is because there's no light in the room. It's meant for plugging in a lamp. The thing is, i have 4 outlets in the room on all walls. one is blocked with a big ass heavy desk so i can't access it. The other is in the other far corner of the room and the two closest together both have power bars and are packed.

Thanks for your suggestions. I might just try the tape trick or buy that thing from home depot.

 

[nativesunshine]

Originally posted by: y00ycdz
Duct Tape the switch to the off position. Make sure it's all nice and sticking well.

I was at some store..and I saw a book called 300 things you can do w/ duct tape..(made up the number..but it was a big number).

flipped through it..kinda funny. wanted to buy it..seemed like a nice little dumb book a guy would enjoy...but i didn't have 5 bucks on me. yep.

 

[Jzero]

The slang term is "Molly Guard." Look it up in the Jargon File.

molly-guard: /mol'ee-gard/ [University of Illinois] n. A shield
to prevent tripping of some {Big Red Switch} by clumsy or
ignorant hands. Originally used of some plexiglass covers
improvised for the BRS on an IBM 4341 after a programmer's toddler
daughter (named Molly) frobbed it twice in one day. Later
generalized to covers over stop/reset switches on disk drives and
networking equipment.

 

[BooGiMaN]

i find that a midget with a short baseball bat to crack knees or a rabid monkey will do the job right