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RLord321 · May 11, 2004, 05:02 PM

I just bought I Home Essentials ceiling fan from K-MART and I wired the fan portion just fine. The wires were nice and color coded Black to black, red to red, white to white and green to bare copper for the ground wire. I turned on the power and it works fine.

When I shut the power back off, and tried to put up the light kit, I noticed that the wires were not so color coded. There is a black and white wire from the light portion (where the actual light bulbs go) and they are tied together with a sticky that says "Light." On the Fan portion (on the ceiling) there is a white and red wire that are tied with a Sticky that says, "Caution: Live wire for a Light".

So do I put the two white wires together and then put the red and black wires together? If this is the case, why wouldn't they color code this as well? I mean, the light kit came with the fan! If this is not the case, please help!

Thanks,

Ron

labman · May 11, 2004, 08:57 PM

Yeah, you got it. In single phase AC wiring white is the neutral and usually grounded. Usually the hot wire is black, but can be almost anything except green which is always a ground. So I am not sure why they made the hot wire from the fan to the light red, but it is the hot wire.

White wires are occasionally hot. You can run cable with a black, white and bare ground to a 220 volt load with the black connected to one phase, and the white to another. You can also run a black/white cable to a switch with the white wire being hot with the switch on.

Then there is automotive where a white wire is often hot, and a black wire is often a ground. ARuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

oldfolks · Jul 2, 2011, 01:52 PM

White to white, black to red should do it.