[russormisty]

I removed an existing fan with a light. It has 3 switches,1 for the fan and 2 for the light(1 upstairs 1 downstairs). There is a normal 3 wire loom coming out of the ceiling(black,white,copper). I installed the new fan with light and it didn't work.The white wire gets power with one switch,the black with the other two. I tried a light fixture to see if it would work(didn't work).The old fan didn't have any extra wires.
Any suggestions?
Thank you , Russ

[ceilingfanrepair]

When you say "the white wire gets power" and "the black wire gets power" what are you testing them against? Are you saying there is there 120vAC between white and ground with the fan switch activated? Are there any other wires in the ceiling?

How was the previous fan connected?

[russormisty]

I tested the white wire with the ground wire and the black wire with the ground wire,they will light up my tester when the wall switches are turned on. There is only the 3 wires coming out of the ceiling and the old fan was wired black to black,white to white and copper to green.
Thank you for the reply

[ceilingfanrepair]

If the "white to ground" lights up your tester, then there is something wrong with the way your ceiling is wired.

If the old fan only had three wires hooked up, you should not of had separate control of the light and fan from different switches.

Something is fishy.

[russormisty]

I just removed the down rod from the old fan and I'm really confused. The white wire going into the down rod is connected to the black wire going into the fan,the black is connected to the blue wire going into the fan and a copper wire is connected to the white wire going into the fan. I did not wire this,it came with the house.

[ceilingfanrepair]

Yeah, whoever installed that fan, rather than run a third wire from the switches to the box, decided to illegally use the ground wire as the neutral and the neutral as a second hot. You can either run new wires from the switches to the fan, or wire it back the way it should be and only have ONE switch for both the fan and the light. TK can tell you more.

[russormisty]

Thank You for your help. I don't know what TK is ?

[tkrussell]

I am a Tk... and ceilingfanrepair is correct, sounds like someone needed two switch legs to the original fan so there was a switch for the fan and another for the light.

So what they did was changed the white neutral to a switched hot, and connected the neutral of the fan to the equipment ground, so the fan/light had a return.

We call this a "Chinese Neutral", not sure why or when this label came from, and certainly no offense intended to any Oriental, just a nickname for this type of illegal connection.

What must be done is to change the white in the outlet box back to a true neutral, which will result in only one hot wire at the ceiling outlet, and means the fan and light will be controlled by the wall switch. At this point you will need to use the pull chains on the fan to switch the fan and light separately.

Or I hear there are fans with remote controls available.

If you have any other fans wired like this in the home they should be changed to be wired correctly.

If you are wondering why the connection is not proper, briefly, the neutral is considered a current carrying conductor, even thou if touched or tested you read no volts. The current is still there, and connecting to an equipment ground sends current through out the home's grounding system. In the event a ground gets disconnnected someplace, either intentional or by accident, someone can get shocked or electrocuted.

FYI:
Shocked = the person lives but may have burns
Electrocution = Dead

Any more questions please get back with them.

[russormisty]

After pulling out the wall switches and seeing how it was wired I understand what someone did (with your help). I hooked up 1 switch and took out the other,everything works.
Thank You both for the help
Russ