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Mcgarbh
May 14, 2012, 01:51 PM
I am installing a harbor breeze ceiling fan and the colors of the wires from the fan don't match the colors of the wires from my outlet in ceiling. The fan has white, black and green wires. The ceiling outlet has white, black, green and red wires. I connected the white to white and so on with the red capped off. When I turned the power back on the fan nor light works.

Chic_Bowdrie
May 14, 2012, 04:02 PM
The presence of the red wire in the ceiling outlet is confusing, because it could be from two three way switches (say on different sides of a room) or for use with one switch to operate the light and the other the fan as in the attached pic. Also only black, white, and green from the fan is unusual, because you normally have a fourth wire to allow the light and fan to be controlled separately.

What type of fan/light did you replace? Do you have more than one switch controlling the outlet?

Mcgarbh
May 14, 2012, 04:06 PM
Yes there are 2 switches on the wall. One has never done anything because I believe it was for previous fan that had a light. The fan that was here when we moved in had no light. The fan had a blue wire that I hooked up to remote control sensor. The sensor only had white, black and green to j box though.

ballengerb1
May 14, 2012, 07:49 PM
Chic, OP does not mention a light so black, white and green are good to go, nice diagrams. Sounds like an old installation had controlled a light and fan long ago but the new fan has no light so cap the red wire, unless you want to add a light kit now. "The fan had a blue wire that I hooked up to remote control sensor. The sensor only had white, black and green to j box though. " this confuses me. Which fan had a blue wire, blue is usually the power wire for a light kit that we don't think you have. That sensor is not a sensor it's a receiver, do you have a hand held transmitter too?

Chic_Bowdrie
May 16, 2012, 09:10 PM
Actually, ballengerb1, the OP did say "the fan nor light works." Also, OP reveals the fan has a blue wire in addition to the previously stated black/white/green and now a sensor, too!

I'm guessing the fan didn't work because the sensor needed to be powered to operate the fan (and light?). I have a remote control fan with a wall switch. When the wall switch is off, the remote does not work. My remote controls both the light and 3 speeds of the fan. This is the configuration I will try to describe next. I have never wired a remote control fan/light so if my configuration does not accurately depict your system, report back how so. OP, make sure the ceiling junction box black wire is hot and one of the switches turns it off and on. If you don't have power on the black wire, try the red wire.

The sensor should receive on/off and speed info from the transmitter. So the sensor must have white/black/green connected to the ceiling box for power when the wall switch is ON. For the sensor to control the fan and light, there must be connections from the fan and light to the sensor. If the sensor is built in, these connections should be made already. But, you mentioned connecting the blue wire to the sensor. So maybe you have to make those connections as part of the installation. Blue is normally for the light. There must also be a connection from the sensor to the fan, most likely a black wire. White nuetral wires should be connected together and the ground wires connected also.

ballengerb1
May 17, 2012, 08:35 AM
Sorry, I did miss the word light.