Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - track lighting wired from fan ceiling box

Hello.

We just bought flexible track lighting for our sun room. This room has a fan. We were thinking of using the fan box to connect the track lighting. The wiring shows that we have 2 hot wires (black and red), 1 neutral (white) and the ground. Both hot wires are connected to a separate switch; one obviously for the fan, and one for the fan light (which our fan does not have). The easy thing to do is to take the fan down, and replace it with the track lighting. However would it be possible to use the hot wire (meant for the fan light) to connect the track light to? Both neutral wires and ground of fan and track light would be wired together with the neutral and ground in the box, one hot wire in the box would lead to the fan and the other hot wire in the box would lead to the track lighting.... and could this be done by pulling a 90 C piece of wire of about a foot long from the box to the connector of the track lighting? This to meet the requirement of the track lighting to be connected to 90 C conductors?

Hopefully someone can tell me whether my idea makes sense or not. ;)

thx, Gwendolyn

I'm not an expert, but I don't see how you can connect the fan and track lights to a single ceiling box. You cannot just run a piece of wire out of the box to power the lights; the connections must be made in the box and the wires cannot be exposed. Maybe you could add another box for the track lights.

You need a box for the wires for the track light. After you install a box you can run a piece of cable in the ceiling from the fan box to the new box.

Well, actually yes, that goes without saying. I would install another box. I am sorry that I did not make that clear. However the construction as I mentioned in my first post, would that still work and since I am not sure whether the wiring for the fan is 90 C, would the wire connected to the original fan box going to the second box be sufficient if I make that 90 C wiring?

thx, Gwendolyn

You can tap any or all of the wires in the fan box and extend them to the new box.

All that is required for 90 degree wire is for the sections that actually enter/exit the box to be rated for 90 degrees, so extending with a foot of brand new 90 degree rated cable NM-B (the B refers to the temperature rating) is fine.

To tell if cable is 90 degree rated, look at the markings. If it is UF-B or NM-B then it is rated for 90 degrees. If it says just plain old NM or UF then it is not. If it is older ungrounded wire then it is also not 90 degree rated.

Thanks for your answer, that gives me all of the information I need concerning the wiring. I appreciate it. Since the ceiling is slanted do you have any suggestions concerning how to attach the track lighting to the ceiling? We would like to use pendant lights....

thx, Gwendolyn