Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - single wall switches

I purchased a home last year that is about 24 years old. None of the rooms except the kitchen have lights. 3 of the bedrooms, the family and dining room have ceiling fans with lights. That is the only lighting in the rooms. One bedroom has a wall switch with allows my daughter to turn on her ceiling fan independent of the light, the switch also allows her to change speeds or dim the light.

I like to keep on my ceiling fan, especially at night, but hate trying to fumble in the dark to find the pull chain to turn on and off the light on the fan. My room and the guest room have a single wall switch, the fan speed and light are controlled by the hanging pull chains.

I took off the cover and unscrewed the light switch receptacle and there are 2 black wires which and a copper one. When I asked the people at Lowes, I was told that I couldn't use a dual switch because I probably only had one wire. If I have two black wires, does this change that? He also suggested that the only thing I could do was install this remote control device in the ceiling fan, but I really have no idea at all about how to take down a ceiling fan! Let alone to wire something into it.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

The normal solution is to add a remote control. It's not that much more expensive to just replace the whole fan, so if the fan is not completely to your liking, you could consider that.

The other solution is to put a long pull-chain on your fan so that you can manipulate it without getting out of bed, but this only works if the fan is directly over the bed.

You can install a smart wall switch, even if you only have two wires up to the ceiling. However, this smart wall switch, like the remote, does require the installation of a module in the fan's bell housing.

The hardest part of installing either the smart wall switch or the remote control is that it is often a fairly tight fit up under the bell housing of the fan.

You do not need to take down the fan to install the receiver up at the fan. All you need to take down is the fan's bell housing, install the receiver, and put the bell housing back up. Any reasonably handy person can do it.

Thanks John. I will try that. Things in the house tend to be more difficult than they should be, the wiring especially seems to have been done incorrectly from what I have been told.

I do not know anything about wiring and my ex husband took all the tools, so I am also pretty new at figuring out what I need! Today I did successfully install a solenoid valvue in the fridge which was cracked and we now have ice and water! I had to run over to Ace Hardware to get a copper pipe cutter, but it felt good to know that I was able to do that project myself. So there is hope. I just have had so many other expenses this week that I had to pay someone to do so moneywise, I am hoping I can learn to do a lot of this stuff myself.

All the electrical outlets in the house need to be replaced, all the top outlets do not hold cords plugged in - so that will be my next job to tackle as a do it yourselfer. Maybe I will try that first and then try the ceiling fan. :)

Thanks for your help.
Christina

Before undertaking any electrical projects, it is essential that you do your homework. Read several books on home wiring and make sure you understand all the proper techniques that you understand how it all works. Don't just start and hope you'll figure it out as you go along.

Thanks again. Yes, I have been trying to read up, and purchased several books. When I had a contractor out a few weeks ago, the found that the outlet on one side of the fireplace shorted out the circuit when they plugged a vacume into it to clean the fireplace. When they took off the outlet cover they found that the ground wire was barely touching (not hooked to anything) and that the box had been added in later but was kind of floating (he had a name but I don't recall). Anyway, because the wires were cut very short, and the box kept moving when they were trying to attach it back, it took a while but they finally got it in. It also didn't use the type of outlet replacements that I had purchased, which were the cheapest standard ones they sold due to the type of wires in the box.

But the contractor did show me what type of tester to get that was easy to check if power was off, and also showed me how to unattach and reattach wires IF the outlets turn out to be done correctly. He said it was a fairly easy thing to do provided I made sure the power was off, and watched what I was doing.

I also had a short in the bathroom upstairs when I plugged in a pump outside last year, we coudn't find a reset button in the house, so one was installed in that bathroom by a handyman. I am not planning to attempt to do anything like wire a ceiling fan in the living room (the only room in the house that does not have any lights on the ceiling), I was just thinking that if I were able to do the smaller stuff, it might save money, but the fact that the previous owner it looks like tried to do some things, might make that a really bad combination and best left to professionals!

Thanks for your help, mostly I was trying to just understand the concept of the different colored wires since I read one post in which you asked the lady if the connections were 2 blacks or a black and white.

Hi Christina, I'm relatively new to the forum, but the posts I have read are being answered by people who really know their stuff, so don't hesitate to ask questions about anything. You might also look around where you live for adult education or senior volunteer groups to give you some real hands on practice with the things you want to learn. I'm one of those volunteeers where I live and folks like you who are anxious to learn are the nicest people to work with.
GL
Bud

Thanks so much Bud for the kind words, and encouragement!

I am trying to learn how to do some stuff on my own, as it is expensive to hire, but probably more because I want to learn how to do this myself, and I need to learn how to do a lot of this stuff myself. I am looking into signing up with habitat for humanity actually to learn more skills while helping to build homes! :) I'm more of a hands on learner, I have to be doing it to understand how to do it.

Thanks again.