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fano3 · Sep 14, 2009, 08:51 PM

Hi -

I'm putting a ceiling fan in a room where there wasn't one, no switch; going to control with a remote control.

I'd like to pull the power to the fan from a constant hot outlet. I cannot create a junction box in the attic and run the new wire from the fan to it as when they built the house they left no slack in the electrical wire from the outlet. So I'm going to snake the new wire from the fan, down the wall to the outlet.

At the outlet, there are 2 sets of existing wires coming in and all four screws used - two blacks and two whites (plus one pigtailed ground to ground screw).

My question is, when I get my new wire down, do I combine all 3 sets of these wires together and just run one black pigtail, one white pigtail one ground? Or do I just need to connect my new wire to one of the other existing wires and pigtail, and leaving one of the other existing wires as-is into the outlet?

Thanks in advance.
Dave

joedadeo · Sep 14, 2009, 09:24 PM

One of your wires to the outlet is HOT. The other is Newtrual.The new fan has to be connected to both . (White and black)
You will not have enough room to pigtial all three. But you may have enough to just pig tail from One wire.If you have a tester find the hot leg and tie into it . Then connect it to the outlet . Don't forget your ground wire it should be connected.

joedadeo · Sep 14, 2009, 09:34 PM

You will have to pig tail both White and Black
But you can do it off just one wire then re- connect it to the outlet.The two screws on the side of the outlet are connected . Some outlets have a hole in the back for a Push-In.Where you can just put the wire in there.In fact you can buy them that way.and that would give you enough connections with out having to Pigtail.

ceilingfanrepair · Sep 14, 2009, 09:35 PM

The short answer to your question is, yes.

hkstroud · Sep 14, 2009, 10:08 PM

You can do that from the attic if you use two junction boxes. You can do it with one junction box if you can cut the cable at a point where one end will reach the ceiling fan location. Doesn't matter which end you make long enough to reach the ceiling fan. Pull that end to ceiling fan, use the junction box to add enough cable to also reach the ceiling fan. Wires will be rejoined in the ceiling fan box.

Do you have a switched outlet? If you can get a cable down the wall to the switch, you can get power from there and use the switch to control the fan light. You may have to rewire the outlet that was formally switched to be constantly hot.