ceiling fan wiring

rena_2010

14 years ago

I installed a new ceiling fan to replace a working but rickety old one. It was wired so the light worked from one switch and the fan with the other. I didn't pay attention to how it was wired and now I can't seem to figure out how it could possibly work through the switch. I have 2 black wires coming from the ceiling and 3 white (in addition to the green/copper ground wires). I am able to hook the fan up to a single white and a single black and have the fan and lights work but we have to us the pull strings because the light switch makes absolutely no difference. I can't seem to find any other combination that makes a hot connection. Has anyone got any idea how the old fan was wired? It was working through the switch.

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Comments (3)

Ron Natalie
14 years ago
One of the black and white wires probably runs over to the switch and back. It will be one of the ones NOT used to get the fan working now. Once you figure out (with a meter or continuity tester) which they are, the white to the switch gets connected to the black wire now being used to power the fan. The returning black gets connected to the fan (where you had the other black connected before)
joed
14 years ago
Did you have a white and black connected together and thought I better fix this the colours don't match. Well put it back. It was supposed to be that way.
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rena_2010
Original Author
14 years ago
Yep, that was what happened. I looked up about wiring a switch on the internet and saw that it could be wired with the electricity coming into the light/fan and the wires to the switch only make a circuit back and forth to the light/fan. The white is wired to the black as suggested above. It had never occurred to me it could be wired that way and it took a lot of drawing it out on paper before I finally understood but I got it now. The fan and light now work from the switches again. Thanks for your help.