Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - Yet Another Ceiling Fan

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View Full Version : Yet Another Ceiling Fan


randy4161
06-21-05, 07:45 AM
It looks like my electrician is not coming back to my renovation job so it’s up to me to hang the ceiling fans. The house was wired to have fan lights operate from a wall switch and the fans operate from the pull chain. I have three pairs of wires coming out of the ceiling box: 3 grounds joined together, 3 whites joined together, 2 blacks joined together and 1 solo black. The bare bulb fixture currently hanging has one side to the 2 black gang and one side to the solo black and it works from the wall switch. The fan, besides the ground wire, has 1 white, 1 black and 1 blue (for light) wire. I’m pretty sure the wall switch only has two wires connected to it. I guess I have the fixture getting power from the ceiling as opposed to getting power from the switch. How should the fan and light be wired?


John Nelson
06-21-05, 08:03 AM
It appears that the bare bulb fixture is incorrectly wired. Are you 100% sure that the fixture attaches to the two black wires to one screw and the solo black wire to the other screw? Please double check.

Also, check the switch wiring and tell us the colors of the two wires connected to the switch, and if there are any other wires in the switch box not connected to the switch.

This setup isn't right. So either it was wired incorrectly or you described it inaccurately. Please double-check your description.

randy4161
06-21-05, 09:15 AM
I'm pretty sure there is only one wire, that is 1 white, 1 black and 1 ground, in the wall switch. I replaced the old switch and I think I would have remembered if there were more than 1 wire on a post. If this matters or helps, all the ceiling lights are on one breaker. I believe this was done so we could have lights in every room while demolition and renovation went on. So isn't the power running from one ceiling box to the next and the wall switch breaking power only to the one light in each room?
I'll double check everything but that won't be until the weekend.


randy4161
06-27-05, 07:08 AM
I opened up another fan and it had better instructions for optional wiring. Armed with that and a line tester, with some trial and error I was able to figure everything out. Like I said, all ceiling lights are on one breaker. Of the 3 pairs of wires coming out of the box, one is hot, coming from the previous ceiling light in the chain, one is going to the next light in the chain and one goes to the wall switch.
To get the fan to work from the pull chain and light to work from the wall switch, I joined all black wires with the black from the fan. Now the fan, its light, and next ceiling light in the chain have power. The blue (light) wire from the fan goes to the switched white wire. The remaining two white wires get joined together. All works as it should. Thanks for your advice and I hope this helps someone else.

John Nelson
06-27-05, 08:05 AM
This installation is relatively safe, but it doesn't follow the electrical code when it comes to wire colors. If it had, it might have been easier to figure out in the first place. Code requires that the white wire feed unswitched power to a switch and the the black wire return switched power from the switch. Yours is currently backwards.