Having successfully overcome the “cheap turnout control” problem, finding a solution for the “cheap electrics” problem was a snap. I decided that rather than bother purchasing toggle switches to control my electric blocks, I would use regular household switches instead.

My house is very old and in an attempt to preserve some sense of history we’ve tried our best to ‘back-date’ modern inclusions as best we can. Once the decision we made early in our renovation efforts was to keep all the switches ‘bake-o-lite brown’ – thus I had a number of brown switches on hand. The dark switches will blend in nicely with the future fascia.

The plus side of the switches is cost – roughly $1.50 each. The boxes, switches and the faceplate cost under $10. As well, they are fantastically durable.

Anyway, not a particularly revolutionary idea, but an interesting (and frugal) alternative to conventional practice

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