I am replacing a ceiling fan in my bedroom. When I took the old fan down, I was not careful to see which wire went where. As a result, I have three (3) wires hanging from the junction box, to which I have no clue what they are.

NOTE: This is an older house, so there is no color code on the wires... they are all encased in black shielding.

Two wires are HOT when the house power is ON, but the switch on the wall is OFF. The third wire is not hot at all.

When the house power is OFF, all wires are dead. My question is, how can I tell which wire is the HOT (Black) and which wire is NEUTRAL (White)... and, what is the wire that is dead all the time? Would that be the ground wire?

I am not an electrician by any means, so is there ever a time when the neutral wire would be HOT? I thought neutral would mean: no power to this wire.

Thank you for your time!

Normally you would have a white a black and a bare wire. Neither your white or your bare wire should be hot, only the black one. Look carefully at the wires in your ceiling. I know they all look alike but are there any dots of paint or anything on them maybe even a small tag or a piece of electrical tape added to id them? Are you sure the wall switch is even on the same circuit, since your wires are hot regardless of whether it is on or off? Sometimes a wall switch is wired with two hot wires and the ground wire becomes the white wire and you have nothing to attach to the ground screw. Had you turned the old fan on and off with that wall switch?

Hello Wildandblue,

Thank you for getting back to me so fast... You know, I finally figured it out with my wife. We got a wire tester and an old ceiling light and were able to figure it out by wiring the light wires to the ceiling wires... it was a matter of trial and error.
As a result, we got it all working... Thanks again for answering my question!

Sincerely,
Dave

It sounds like you were measuring between the wires, and not between one wire (at a time) and ground. That's what you need to do.