Ceiling fan wiring?

Hello,

This question will prove my lack of electrical knowledge. I am installing a new ceiling fan. The fan wires are black,blue,white, and green. The wires coming out of my box are black,red,white, and copper ground.
The fan instructions say to hook up the black and blue motor wires to the black hot wire out of the box, and other wires accordingly. However, what do I do with the red box wire?? I simply capped it and the fan does not work. Should I hook the blue fan wire to the red box wire?

Thanks,
Joey

 

Let me make some guesses. Stop me if I guess wrong.

• Your house is fairly new -- built within the last 10 years.
• You do not live in Chicago or New York City.
• There are two side-by-side switches on the wall at the entrance to the room.
• There is just one wire of each color in the ceiling box -- not two of each color.

How did I do?

If the guesses are all correct, then try connecting black to black and blue to red. If not, tell me where I went wrong.

 

Hey John,

Thanks for the quick response. Yes, all of your guesses were correct! Now, can I leave the red box wire capped until tommorrow then hook up the blue to the red. Or should I do this immediately before I burn my house down.

I do not have the switch currently in the on position.
Thanks,
Joey

 

You're fine until you get around to fixing it. It's not a safety issue, just an operational one.

Next time you try it, make sure the wall switches and pull chains are all on for both the fan and light.

 

Well, don't keep us in suspense, John; what's special about Chicago and NYC???

I'm guessing massive, overly restrictive (and more expensive) government regulations making for a different configuration?

 

Chicago and NYC (and other) require conduit and do not use NM. Hence, you often make different guesses when interpreting wire color. E.g., in most places, you always have to consider that a white wire might be part of a switch loop, or a hot leg of a water heater circuit. But in Chicago, you can pretty much assume that it is really a grounded conductor.

 

Hello John,

Oddly enough I hooked the blue fan wire to the red ceiling box wire with no results. Through trial/error hooking the black/blue fan wires to both the black/red ceiling wires supplied the correct configuration. I guess?? The fan operates fine without sparks, or my ceiling catching fire so I think I'll stick with this setup. Even though the red/black(house) to black/blue(fan) hookup is a massive ball of copper.

I guess the red ceiling wire was some kind of axillary hot wire along with the black one that's why the fan would not operate without being hooked together?

Thanks again,
Joey

 

Describe all the wall switches in this room. For extra credit, pull them out and describe everything you see.