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I have recently replaced an old light fixture with a ceiling fan. The fan has the following wires: blue, green (ground), black, and white. I hooked the previous fan up fine with a wall switch; I just hooked the green to ground, black and blue to black, and white to wite. The fan worked like a charm. However, when I went to do thisthe same way, it worked, but the light switch did nothing. The ceiling has two white wires, a ground, and two black wires. What am I doing wrong?
AdviceSeeker,
Just follow this guide... any question just re-post.
1) Was the original fixture on a 3way switch in a kitchen?
2) In the ceiling box... did you have a single black(HOT), white(Neutral) and ground conductor entering the box from a single cable?
3) Or did the box have 2 cables (2 blacks, 2 whites and 2 grounds all wirer-nut'd black-black, white-white, gnd-gnd? If that, was the conductors from the old light fixture connected to each black, white, gnd? If they were then there was no light switch involved and the old light fixture had a pull chain.
4) If you have accounted for each wire in that ceiling box... then maybe you have a defecting switch in the closed ON position, or maybe the switch is controlling an outlet in that room.
5) Located the breaker for that fixture and flip it to the off position.
6) Carefully pull the switch from its gang and loosen one of the screws and remove one of the wires from the switch.
7) Place some black tape over the exposed cooper conductor
8) Turn the breaker back on and verify if the fan/ light is still operational
9) If the fan/light is still operational then the switch is for something else as I mention above
10) If the fan/light doesn't work than you need to replace that switch because it's defective and locked in the ON position. Be sure to flip the breaker off before replacing any device or fixture.
Joe
With no more information than you have provided I would say that the way the light fixtures were wired is different.
When you installed the fan/light in the previous time, power was being fed to the switch. In this installation the power is being fed to the fixture.
In the first installation power is being brought to the switch. The whites are the neutral and are wire nutted together. The blacks are hot. The black of the cable bring power in is wired to one side of the switch and the black taking power to the light is wired to the other side of the switch. Therefore, when you connect white to white and black and blue to to black everything worked.
In this case power is being brought to the ceiling fixture. The white of the cable bringing power in is neutral. The black of the cable bring power in is hot. It is connected to the white going to the switch and takes power to the switch. At the switch the white is connected to one side of the switch and the black is connected to the other. At the ceiling the white of the fixture is connected to the white of the cable bring power in. The black of the fixture, in this case, the black and the blue of the fan/light is connected to the black from the switch.
Had you not disturbed the existing wiring and simply connected white to white and black to black and blue everything would have worked. Confirm this by removing the switch. You should have only one cable with one black and one white wire and both wires should be connected to the switch.
Now you have to determine which cable is bring power to the ceiling box and which cable is going to the switch. To do this, disconnect all wiring. Put wire nuts on the white and black of one cable. Connect the white of the fan to the other white. Connect the blue of the fan to the other black. Turn the power on, try the pull chain. If the light burns you are connected to the power in cable. If not you are connected to the cable between the ceiling and the switch.
After determining which cable is power in, connect the black of the power in cable to the white of the switch cable. Then install fan/light, white to white, black of the fan to the black/white connection and blue to the remaining black.
Switch will control light, pull chain will control fan.
Thanks. It is ran from two cables in the box. There was just a regular light fixture that was originally hooked up. The light switch worked fine for the light, but my girlfriend wanted to replace the light with a ceiling fan. With that being said, I replaced it with a fan. However, the light switch is not operating the fan. At first, the fan wasn't operating at all, so I switched the white wire from the fan, to the other white wire out of the box: fan and lights worked, but light switch did not. There is still a black wire and white wire left unwired from the box: what do I do with these?
Think about what you just said! If in the ceiling box the wiring config is BLACK-BLACK, WHITE-WHITE, then when he operated the switch he would have a dead short. BLACK HOT in wired to BLACK HOT to the Switch, WHITE Switched HOT to the ceiling box wired to WHITE NEUTRAL, DEAD SHORT!!Quote:
Originally Posted by hkstroud
The black&white combo wire should be hot toand from the switch. Reconnected to the hot wire entering the ceiling box,, to the white wire going to the switch, This white conductor shoud be marked with a black stripe in both the ceiling box and at the switch. This marks it as being a switch hot conductor. At the ceiling box connect the black wire from the switch to the Fan/Light conductors.Quote:
Originally Posted by AdviceSeeker86
Thanks for all the responses! I will make notes of all this and will be back with any more issues that might arise. Thanks again!
Best of Luck!Quote:
Originally Posted by AdviceSeeker86
Incorrect.Quote:
BLACK HOT in wired to BLACK HOT to the Switch
It has been the practice for many years and is now the code, that the white will be used to take power to the switch and black to return power to the fixture in a switch loop. The reason for that is that leaves you with white to white and black to black connections in the ceiling box.
Those are not my words, if you are going to quote me, do it correctly.Quote:
WHITE Switched HOT to the ceiling box wired to WHITE NEUTRAL
Let me start you over, please.
Beginning at the ceiling outlet, are there two cables coming into the box? One for constant power and one that feeds the switch and returns the power for the light?
If this is true, Then you have a "Switch Loop" to control the ON/Off for the light package.
Please do this:
1) Turn the power to the device off.
2) Identify which cable contains the "Supply" hot conductor (black) and the (white) Neutral return.
3) Connect the Black from the fan and the White to the Black Supply conductor. Place a piece of black electrical tape around the white conductor to show that this conductor is being used as a hot conductor.
4) Connect the blue conductor from the light to the black conductor from the switch.
5) Connect the white from the fan to the white conductor in the supply cable.
Before closing everything back up in the ceiling box, turn the power back on and try your light. If it works off the wall switch now then you should be fine.
Turn the power back off and complete the installation on the ceiling.
Power it back up and test the light and then using the pull chain check the fans operation on each speed level.
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