While I was at college somehow my fan stopped working. There is absolutely no explination from anybody but my mom did get a replacement so I didn't care too much. The fan has a ground from the mount(copper), ground from the middle of the fan(copper), a hot for the light(blue), hot for the fan(black), and a nuetral(white). I am connecting it to a single wall switch and the fan has a pull chain for the light and one for the fan. At one time, we had a similar fan and light installed and it worked fine. The ceiling only has a white and a black, no ground. Originally, because of mistaken color and a poor instruction manual we had connected something like both grounds to the light hot(blue), black to black, white to white. This caused the fan to work but not the lights. I have a feeling this may not be the exact set up because when we tried to recreate this situation, nothing worked at all.

Originally when working we just had the light switch off. Then when we went to fix the blue being connected to the ground, we were shocked. I am not positive it was the blue but believe it was. So the circuit for the entire room was shut off. Then as we attempt to fix it again, get shocked. Again, not positive which it was but believed to be the blue. Taking further safety precautions, we wire the fan's blue and black to the ceiling's black, white to white, and the mount ground to the middle of the fan ground. This causes only the light to work.

I have been searching for any solutions I can find but have come up with nothing. My brother has some electrical experience but not a ton and can't figure it out either(he is the other part of we). Any suggestions or help will be greatly appriciated.

First of all, the proper way to wire it is: black and blue to ceiling black, white to ceiling white, and connect the two fan grounds together. Here's a page on wiring for clarification:

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/c...fan-wiring.php

NOW, if you have it wired like this, and the light is working but the fan is not, and you are SURE that the black and blue are both connected.. . Something is either loose or broken inside the fan. Open it up, check for loose wires or connections.

When you were shocked, what were you touching?

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/c...ng-and-FAQ.php

Yes, it is wired in that manner and the connections are definitely secure.

The shock seemed to come from the blue wire from the fan, but both times it came as a surprised(first we assumed the switch being off, nothing would happen, the second time the whole circuit was off so we expect nothing.) Then another time when we were trying to duplicate the fan-only situation(black to black, blue to grounds, white to white) it didn't work. When reconnecting it to the correct situation, the blue caused a spark when going to connect to the two black already connected.

Its possible it's the fan but I doubt it since the old one's ceiling fan stopped working and now this one. On top of that, it did originally work in some possibly unknown set up that caused the light to not work.

I'm very confused at this point and not sure where we can even go from here.

Ok, what I would do, I'm not sure you're able to.. . Remove the fan from the ceiling and wire the motor up in a test situation to see if it functions as it should. Also, get a volt meter and check the wires in the ceiling confirm that both black-white, black-ground (ground being the metal outlet box) yield 120vAC.

I'm not an expert but wanted to throw this idea out there in case it applies.

Ceiling fans that come with an integrated light will often have only one neutral wire that is common to the light and the fan motor while having the independent blue and black wires for hot.
On ceiling fans where the lights are optional or added as a kit they often have independent neutral wires that you would have to feed through and tie together, so is it possible there is a missing neutral wire for one of the connections?

Also, what was the configuration of the old ceiling fan? Many people wire their fans with two switches instead of one so they can control the fan and lights separately from the wall. Is it possible that there are more wires that got pulled back into ceiling so you did not see them when connecting up the new fan? It might account for getting a shock when you thought the circuit was dead.

Just thoughts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the_nite_owl

On ceiling fans where the lights are optional or added as a kit they often have independent neutral wires that you would have to feed through and tie together, so is it possible there is a missing neutral wire for one of the connections?

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I have worked on thousands of ceiling fans, as old as from the 1920s, to new ones, and the only time I have ever seen a separate neutral for the light, is when the light was on top of the motor (an uplight, light up housing, light up canopy, etc) always in the case of very high-end fans. I doubt we're dealing with that here as it seems he's speaking of his fan light as the light source for the room. I am not saying you are wrong, I am more curious as to when you have encountered this. You can always feed through a separate neutral to the light, but I don't see why it would be necessary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the_nite_owl

Is it possible that there are more wires that got pulled back into ceiling so you did not see them when connecting up the new fan? It might account for getting a shock when you thought the circuit was dead.

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He says he got shocked from the fan's blue wire. The only way I can see that happening is if the light/fan's neutral was connected to hot, or if inside the fan housing somewhere the blue wire came in contact with hot. You can get a shock from a ceiling fan with the power off, from the capacitor(s) discharging, but it would be across the fan's black and white wires.

I was recently reading an article on wiring ceiling fans and it talked about there generally being three wires but occasionaly there could be a fourth if the light fixture was an add on rather than a fixed part of the assembly.

Last fall I installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom and the light fixture came with the fan but also had a cover so if you opted not to use the lights you could put the cover in place instead. I do not remember the specifics of the wiring but wondered if you had the lights as an optional component, how would you get neutral to the lights if it did not have both wires fed up through the fan assembly? If it were a permanent fixture the wiring would be in place internally and only one neutral would need to be presented up top, but that would not be the case with some add ons unless they had a built in plug for the light fixture. Come to think of it the plug probably is the way my fan went up but I could imagine cheaper fan light assemblies just having you feed both wires up leaving you with two neutrals to tie together.

As I said though, I am no expert. Just based on what I read on another web site about the potential for a second neutral in some cases made me think it could possibly be applicable here and should be considered. But then again, I always run into the most bizarre sets of circumstances anyway so I always look for the most unlikely things to go wrong. But I would gladly trade with someone for a more normal life. :)

All three wires-- fan hot, light hot, and neutral-- terminate in the switch housing of the fan where the light mounts. All of the wires from the motor terminate there as well, this is where the switching circuitry is, etc. The light connects to it's own hot fed through from the downrod, and taps on to the same neutral as the fan motor, which also feeds through the downrod.

There are some fans with circuitry inside the motor housing, such as remote receivers and the like. When this is the case the neutral pigtails on top of the motor, and/or at the receiver/circuit board/etc, and is fed through the motor shaft to the switch housing.

In any case there's usually only one neutral leading up to the ceiling.

Update on the stituation. We just noticed that the fan has a slight vibration that you can feel and varies as you pull the switch. I guess the next step will be to open up the fan and see if there is anything noticeably wrong. Any suggestions or tips on what to look for?

Check to see that the reverse switch is firmly seated in the up or down position. Check for loose connections. Check for parts that look like they are burnt or melted.

AND:

http://www.ceiling-fans-n-more.com/c...ng-and-FAQ.php