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earhlr · May 24, 2013, 05:35 PM

I am trying to connect a ceiling fan to the ceiling (LOL) the wall has two switches, and I would like to connect one switch for light and one for fan, but I don't know what is what.

The fan has a Solid Black wire, a solid white wire, a black and white wire and then a green wire (from the base of fan not in wire bundle with the others)

The ceiling has a naked wire (no plastic/rubber coating), as solid white and a solid black wire all coming from the wire bundle in the ceiling and then a solid green wire on the bracket on the ceiling.

So my question is what combination means what and what color wire means what. I have tried a few combinations and I can get the light and fan to work but from only one light switch so I have to pull the cords to turn one off or on. I would like to just use wall switches, and then use cords if necessary to control fan speed.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide. I'm a total amateur electrician. I'm just a simple Airborne Infantryman by trade. Basically better at destroying stuff than putting stuff together. LOL.

donf · May 26, 2013, 10:41 AM

Ok,

Lets start back at the ceiling outlet. Is this where your main supply comes into the box?

Do you also have two additional cables each with a black / white / bare ground?

If you only have two cables and one of those is the supply line then you only have one wall switch being used for control of a light. The fan is controlled by a pull chain.

In the ceiling device box, you should have the black from the fan connected to the black on the supply line. Also, there should be the White (to the wall switch) with a black band of tape around it connected with these two blacks.

The black from switch will go to the feed for the light usually this is a usually a blue wire.

I need a better description of this black/white striped wire. It might be the neutral for the fan or the hot for the light. Do you have a white conductor on the fan

jerro · May 27, 2013, 11:42 AM

Unless you have 4 wires (white/neutral, bare/ ground, black/ 1 switch, red/ 2nd switch) coming into you ceiling box you can only turn the light and fan on and off separately by the pull chains you indicated. With the wiring you have you would need to have a remote and receiver installed to operate without using the pull chains.