I am at my witts end! All I wanted to do was remove a ceiling fan and replace it with a chandler- and move my electircal box about 3 feet from the old one. What I have discovered is an electrical nightmare! There are 5 different switches hooked up to one main power line. Like a big continuous circut with black and white wires. Each switch goes to a different light. The switch that operates the celing fan has a black, red, and white wire coming from the fan and from the box. The black is hot and the white is is never connected to the switch it continues the circuit throughout the room. The red is cold on the switch. We have the red wire connected to the white at the new chandeler/fan. When we do this, all other switches/lights work, except the chandeler/fan. The fan/chandeler will turn on when I turn the breaker on only if the switch is in the off position. As soon as I turn it to the on position, the circuit overloads and everything goes off. The house was origonally wired in 1962. Please help!

 

Whenever somebody give these two symptoms:

1. The fixture is on when the switch is off, and
2. the breaker trips when I turn the switch on,

it always means one thing: you have wired a switch loop as if it wasn't a switch loop. I hope this general information helps, because I really didn't understand your description of the wiring.

 

OK, Now I have the black wire coming out of the switch, and into the chandeler, and back out to the other lights on the circuit. I have the white wire going into and out of the new chandeler, and out to the other lights on the circuit. I have the "red" wire that is coming out of the switch attached to the black wire that goes into the new light. Now the light is on when it is in the "on " position but it won't turn off when I turn the switch off.
Any other suggestions? Please?

 

Look at the switch and tell me all the wires connected to it.

The chandelier is clearly wired incorrectly, but we'll get back to that soon.

 

There is a black and white wire coming into the switch box. The black wire is attached to the top screw of the switch, and the white wire is attached to another white wire leaving the box. It is not attached to the switch itself. There is a red wire attached to the lower screw and leaves the switch box. There are no ground wires.

 

You're starting to make my first answer look wrong. You seem to have made a quite unique mistake.

So at the ceiling, you have the two black wires from the box connected to the one black wire from the chandelier. And you have the two white wires and the one red wire from the ceiling all connected to the white wire from the chandelier. Did I say this right?

If I got it right, then do this:

• Connect the two black wires from the ceiling to each other, but not to the chandelier.
• Connect the red wire from the ceiling to the black wire from the chandelier.
• Connect the two white wires from the ceiling to the white wire from the chandelier.

 

Oh My GoD! YOu are a GEM! It's Fixed! I cannot tell you how relieved I am! Now I can go to bed a happy lady! TWO DAYS I have been working on this with my husband! Finally! Thank you, thank you THANK YOU!
Kris & Scott

 

Congratulations!