Two ceiling fans on one wall switch & Breaker. Closest ceil fan/light to switch turns on, off, fan works right, all works right. Second Fan/light appears run from first fan's switch box (unsure about that but suspect it. For this question forget the internal fan/light wiring for 2nd light/fan. With 2nd fan disconnected checking voltage on three wire supply wire (black, white (neutral) and copper (ground) yields the following results. Black wire (Hot) has no connection or voltage appearing on it, no continuity to ground or Neutral. White (Neutral) wire has zero volts (to ground) copper wire & outlet box when wall switch is turned on and 1st fan is working (lights burning, fan running). When wall switch is turned off first fan is turned off (light(s) off & fan off) but 120 VAC appears on the White (neutral) wire coming out of 2nd fans ceiling box. Regardless of switch position black wire (hot) has 0 volts on it. White wire only has 120 V when wall switch is in OFF position but when ON (and it should have 120VAC appearing it has 0 Volts and first fan works as it should. ALL voltages (white neutral wire of 2nd fan when off) and all voltages when wall switch is on disappear and are off when the Breaker box breaker for this circuit is tripped or turned off.


I first thought there was back feeding voltage from another circuit however that voltage on the and fan Neutral (white) wire disappears when the breaker (for the first fan and the wall switch) is tripped. Any ideas what's going on here? My thought is that the Hot (Black) wire is just disconnected somewhere in the circuit and this is not a two/three way switch. I cannot envision why 120VAC appears on the White (Neutral) wire of the 2nd fan when the wall switch is turned off.


One other piece of information. When the ground was used as a Neutral wire and the white wire connected to the Fan's Light/fan Hot wires and the wall switch turned on then one of the two fan/lights would iight and the other would be off and when the wall switch was flipped the opposite direction (off) then the fans would alternate being on with the 2nd fan/light on and the first off. I was also told that at one time both fans/lights were on at the same time and worked but just went off one day and never came back on right.


Last info: on the 2nd fan I observed and noticed that whoever hooked/wired up the fan/light did so with the light (HOT) wire pinched between the fans support and the fixture and caused it to short to the fan case & metal holder. There was an obvious burnt spot on the brass where an arc happened at one time due to this pinched wire. Has anyone seen this before and any ideas on troubleshooting as to finding the reason why both fans will not light at the same time, why 120VAC would appear on the Neutral (white) wire of the 2nd fan (farthest away from the wall switch) when the wall switch was in the OFF position breaking power from the breaker box yet all power/voltage is gone when the single branch circuit breaker is thrown?


Thanks in advance

Your white wire is not really a neutral! If the neutral wire was hot you would have a myriad of other issues. I can't say for sure, but when the incoming power goes to the light box first the practice of connecting the white wire to the incoming black is code when only it and a black wire are taken down to the switch. The reason this is done is so that the black wire coming back from the switch is hot when switched. I can maybe help you visualize this. Say you have a simple ceiling light. You bring a power romex to the light box which has a black un-switched hot wire and a white wire that is neutral and goes back to the neutral terminal in the breaker panel. Now you want to run a simple switch down to the wall. All you have is romex wire that has a black, a white and a bare ground. In this instance you have to connect the white wire going to the switch to the incoming black wire. This sends power down to the switch on the white wire and back on the switched black wire. This ensures that you have a black and a white properly phased at the light. If you didn't do this you would have power down on the black and switched power back on the white. When you went to connect up the light you would not have a black and white for the light, instead you would have two whites which to the untrained or inattentive person could result in incorrect connection of the light. The code made this exception just for this case.

If you truly had 120 on a white wire and it was connected at the panel you would have bang! A dead short. If what I said before isn't your case, then the next thing I would assume is that you have power going through the fan, but the white wire you are reading 120 volts on is just the other side of the fan that has power on it and you are reading basically the same as the wire feeding the fan and that the white wire you are using is not connected to the white considered to be the neutral, or the voltage would be zero to ground. Sometimes older homes and homes wired by inexperience people can create configurations that aren't code or a conglomeration of whatever materials they had available.

It is difficult to visualize your situation with out seeing all that is involved. One assumed piece of the puzzle may be missing that would solve it all. Try to draw out the circuit on paper. See where the power is coming from and going to and the connections. Where you have two fans it could be that you needed an extra wire between the two fans depending on how everything is tied together. Hope this gives
You some direction