I just bought a new fan/light for my master bathroom, and was attempting to install it when I ran into a snag... The wiring described in the manual is black/white wires in the ceiling to black/white wires in the unit, etc, but the reality is that I have one red, one yellow, and one black wire in the ceiling, apparently with no ground (none that I can find, anyway). The old unit was plastic, but the new one is aluminum... This is an older house, and I want to ensure that this is going up correctly. I believe the red would connect to the fan, and the black to the light... My hunch would be yellow connects to both whites... Am I on the right track so far? I don't want to burn the house down... I also need to know what to do about the ground (or lack of), as right now I have nothing to connect it to (the one that is part of the fan assembly, as the existing wiring doesn't appear have one, as I stated).

Any help here would be much appreciated!

Ok, well, I gave it a shot, based on my previous assumptions (red in ceiling to black on fan, black in ceiling to black on light, and yellow in ceiling to white on both), and it works. The only thing I am still not certain of is what to do about the ground wire... I have a ground wire on the box for the fan/light, but nothing to connect it to, wire-wise, out of the ceiling. Is there some other option with this? Is it necessary (the old fan/light didn't have a ground connected)? I want to ensure that this is safe, as it is my family's safety... Any help, again, would be appreciated!

The fan/light you removed, how did it's wires connect?

Your hunch is my hunch, but you probably want to confirm that the yellow is a neutral before you go trying it. Do you have a volt meter or ohm meter?

Also, are the wires from your house in a metal sheath or box? In older wiring, the conduit itself is the ground.

Ceiling fan lighting - Ceiling Fans N More

Ok I posted my reply before you posted yours.. . See my bit about the metal sheathing/conduit/box.

Sorry it has taken so long to reply, but I just had a chance to further investigate in the attic... The sheathing is not metal, and I could not find any box up there. I haven't been the length of the house in the attic, but it appears that there is no ground at all, but I can't imagine that that is the case. I just cannot find anything. It looks like everything is just daisy-chained from one end of the house to the other, and on the far end is the breaker box. I looked at a ceiling fan, another bathroom fan, and a couple of lights, but saw no ground wire (well, the ceiling fan had one coming down, but I can't find where it actually goes anywhere--may be simply attached to a nail in the bracing board). It appears that someone did some shoddy wiring work when they built (or live in) the house, or I am simply missing something obvious somewhere...

This is TK's domain and not mine, so you should expect his answer.

But I will ask.. . The wiring is romex with the plastic sheath.. . But doesn't include a ground wire?

Yeah, it's romex wiring in a plastic (I say rubber) sheath, but there is no ground. I have cut the sheath back about 3 inches, to see if it is buried in there, but nothing. I have everything hooked up, and it works well, but no ground. I don't have pipes running through the attic, so I have no options there. It seems like a shoddy job, but maybe that was the norm when the house was built (in the 70's, probably around the time I was born). The previous fan had a plastic housing, which is the reason that it didn't have a ground connected to the housing, like this one does... The new fan has a ground wire screwed to the housing, but the other end is just dangling, not having anything to connect to... I am at a loss for what to do, but I had to get it put up, as I had a hole in the ceiling, and the heat was unbearable, with all of the air seemingly going up there from our bedroom... When the builder (or whoever) installed the fans, they did so without duct work to run the vent outside, so the fan sucks up the air in the bathroom (actually, in both bathrooms), and just dumps it in the attic! I have been around the attic as much as possible (short of going to the far end of the house), and found nothing else to tie this to... I have a handy-man guy coming over this week to do some work for me, and I may have him look around for something... I have already closed everything up, but it's not hard to get it all back down again if I need to (I have already done so twice now... ).

Any help is great! I appreciate your time!