View Full Version : Hampton bay celing fan install with odd house!
cmckelvy
Jun 7, 2008, 09:54 AM
I have a double wall switch to separate the light and the celing fan controls. The fan has a white, black, blue (light), and green (ground). The problem is the home!! I only have 2 whites (twisted together currently), 2 blacks (twisted together currently), ground. How to I wire this? Thanks!
ballengerb1
Jun 7, 2008, 02:08 PM
The white is its neutral for both fan and light, black is hot for fan motor and blue is hot for the light. Are the black wires you mention coming to the switch box hot or are these the wires that come down from the fixture?
donf
Jun 7, 2008, 02:22 PM
Hold it, this fellow is using wall switches; in which case one of the whites may be part of a switch loop from the ceilng to feed both switches.
Please define the term "Home". Do you mean at the wall switches or at the ceiling? When you installed the fan, was there a wire in the ceiling that supplied power for a previous light?
Do you know where the power is coming from to feed the switches, the overhead junction box or from an outlet to the switch and then to the fan and light?
cmckelvy
Jun 7, 2008, 02:33 PM
The 2 blacks and 2 whites are hanging out of the hole in the celing. I honestly have no idea how it is wired to the switches.
donf
Jun 7, 2008, 03:25 PM
Okay,
The wiring has to be isolated out between what is from the wall switches and what is from the panel feed. Make sure the circuit breaker for the fan and light is set to on and both wall switches are turned off.
Do you have a Volt, Ohm Meter or a Voltage tester? A simple voltage tester or meter can get those answers for us. For my purposes, I would prefer the meter.
What you need to look for is whether there is a cable in the ceiling that is always carrying voltage. Or is voltage carried by each switch.
With the meter set to AC voltage, clip the black probe to one of the white wires and the red probe to the black that is paired with it. Then set one of the wall switches to ON. If you see voltage on the pair, you know the power is supplied by that switch (we can call that SW1 for identification). If you don't see voltage, turn the other switch (SW2) on. Did you see voltage from either switch? If yes, turn both switches off, move the probes to the second black / white pair and repeat the test.
If power is supplied to the fixture directly from the switches each switch will show voltage.
Please let me know what the test results are. If you don't see voltage from SW1 to Pair1 and from SW2 to Pair2. I need to know that. Also, if you find voltage on one of the pairs, regardless of whether you operate the switches.
I strongly suspect that each switch is supplying power to the chosen circuit.