Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - weird ceiling fan problem
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justsomeguy
01-10-06, 07:28 AM
I tried to replace a ceiling fan last night but ran into a little bit of a problem. When I took the old fan down, a small piece of black wire (12 guage maybe) fell off of a wire in the ceiling. That left me with a black wire, a white wire, and a big red wire with to conductors hanging out of it. so I hooked things back where I believed they went. while it works kind of. The light turns on and is controlled by a dimmer switch. the fan works only when the dimmer switch is turned down or off. the lower you turn the switch the faster the fan goes. any idea what I did wrong?
classicsat
01-12-06, 12:54 PM
It seems you are in the UK, where the black is the neutral wire, but white isn't really used in domestic wiring there.
It seems that you may have the fan wired in series somehow, with the dimmer across the motor.
It seems that you may have the fan wired in series somehow, with the dimmer across the motor.
rkoudelka
01-12-06, 02:49 PM
The black is neutral in the UK?
And I thought calling french fries "chips" was strange.
And I thought calling french fries "chips" was strange.
classicsat
01-12-06, 05:44 PM
Yes, to the old standards, and a chippie is not a french fry cook, but a carpenter.
New standards use the European Blue Neutral, Green-Yellow earth, Brown Live. Traditionally swyichloops used a red-red or a red-red-blue wire (for their equivalent of 3-way, which they call 2-way).
New standards use the European Blue Neutral, Green-Yellow earth, Brown Live. Traditionally swyichloops used a red-red or a red-red-blue wire (for their equivalent of 3-way, which they call 2-way).
ceilingfanrepai
02-21-06, 01:23 AM
Ok ARE you from the UK? If you are I dont have a CLUE . . .
If you are not . . . it sounds like standard behavior for a fan hooked to a dimmer . . . dont leave it that way or you will burn the fan.
How do you have the fan hooked right now? Assuming the fan's white is hooked to a white wire . . . unhook the fan's black wire and hook up the fan's red/blue/striped wire up to whatever the black wire WAS hooked to. Hook the black wire up to whatever's left.
Is there a separate switch for the fan, or is it jsut controlled by it's pullchain? Reason I ask, the piece of 12 gauge that fell was probably a jumper between the fan's black and a splice to a series of hot leads. Either there wont be enough wires left to hook the fan's black to, or you may find some outlets in the room no longer work.
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If you are not . . . it sounds like standard behavior for a fan hooked to a dimmer . . . dont leave it that way or you will burn the fan.
How do you have the fan hooked right now? Assuming the fan's white is hooked to a white wire . . . unhook the fan's black wire and hook up the fan's red/blue/striped wire up to whatever the black wire WAS hooked to. Hook the black wire up to whatever's left.
Is there a separate switch for the fan, or is it jsut controlled by it's pullchain? Reason I ask, the piece of 12 gauge that fell was probably a jumper between the fan's black and a splice to a series of hot leads. Either there wont be enough wires left to hook the fan's black to, or you may find some outlets in the room no longer work.
MEMBER BANNED FOR ADVERTISING