Splitting Circuit for ceiling fan


  #1  
Old 08-17-03, 10:30 PM
phonespy
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Unhappy Splitting Circuit for ceiling fan

I have spliced into a circuit that went to another light switch. I used 14 AWG wire. The cable I spliced into has four wires(Blk,Wht,Red and Bare). The Cable I am using for the ceiling fan w/lights has three wires(Blk,Wht and Bare). The problem I am having is that the switch in the hall is controlling the Ceiling fan. The switch in the room where the ceiling fan is located is in the off position. If I turn the switch to the on position, it throws the breaker. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. The wife is laughing.
 
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Old 08-18-03, 01:45 PM
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What is the existing three wire cable for (ground is not counted bare/green), and where did you connect to it? I have the feeling you connected to a switch loop or set of three-ways for the hallway and also may have the ceiling fan wall switch wired wrong.

Explain the layout of cables and what they connect to the best you can. We're looking for the sequence of devices, what they control, and how many wires. What you explain should not expand to much beyond the ceiling fan, hallway light, and maybe one other location.

Specific to the ceiling fan: the feed coming into the switch should have black to the switch and outgoing black to the fan. Whites & grounds get wire nutted.
If you wired the fan in the other order, fan then switch, black from the feed should go the white to the switch, and black from the switch to black on fan unit, and white from fan to white from feed. As to where you connected the ceiling fan addition into another circuit, this may also be a problem. There should be a way to connect into the hallway, tell us what wires come into the switch(es) and light fixture. An alternative is to connect to another location where there is not a three wire cable. Three wire cables can also be used for multi-wire circuits, just to make sure, does the breaker have a single handle, and is single-width?
Of course you may have wired everything properly to, and there are some damaged wires shorted together, such as from tightening a cable clamp to tight, or hammering a staple to hard.

gj
 
  #3  
Old 08-18-03, 03:18 PM
phonespy
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SPLITTING CICUIT FOR CEILING FAN

The hallway has two light fixtures and three switches that control them. The wire that I spliced into is between the two upstair switches. The switch in the room that I put in is wired with white on top post and black on bottom. The Hallway switches are three way switches. The Rooms switch is a normal switch.

The wiring is as follows for the Ceiling fan. I have two 2 wire cables in the switch box. I have 1 of the cables going from the switch to the fan Black to Black and White to White. The other cable goes from the switch to the source (Spliced Cable) Black to Black, white to white. I have a third cable (2ft Jumper) that connects the red wires of the spliced cable.
 
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Old 08-18-03, 04:25 PM
J
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There is no way to tap power by splicing into a cable between two 3-way switches. Use that junction box to splice the cable back together the way it was before you started, and then go look for some other source of power. An unswitched receptacle is always good.
 
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Old 08-22-03, 12:17 AM
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I interpret your description to mean that the new switch is pigtailed or so to both BK and WH from both cables?
That guarantees a dead-fault short to trip breaker. At the switch, whites go together, and one black on each screw.
Reassemble the three wire cable in the attic, and put a junction box in, or two of them with a new piece of 14/3 or 12/3 between.
FYI: If there are three switches controlling the same hallway lights, the first and last are 3-ways, the one in the middle is a 4-way. just for your future reference.

John is right. Is the dillema routing the cable to a receptacle with a large enough box and accessability? Maybe we can offer some advice.

gj
 
 

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