New ceiling fan wiring question...


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Old 08-04-06, 04:13 PM
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New ceiling fan wiring question...

I've got another ceiling fan that I'm looking to install, but the wiring is more complicated than the first one was. Now keep in mind, I'm a pretty novice electrician. Extremely novice.

So, the wires that drop out of the box are as follows:

Out of one side of the box, there is a green, (off)white and black wire. The green wire is connected two green wires that drop down from the other side. There are also two black wires and two (off)white wires that hang down from the other side.

The ceiling fan has a white, black and blue wire. And the bracket has a green wire. I know the green goes to the green, or copper wire. The directions say to hook the black and blue together to the black wire, and the white to the white. But, which ones? All of them??

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
 
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Old 08-04-06, 06:05 PM
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When you took down whatever was up there, you made note of where the wires went, right? You took a digital picture, right?
OK, are any of the wires tied together with b-caps? If so, which ones. Is the fan to be controlled by a wall switch?
You will need to determine which black wire is hot. Most likely the one on the side where the green wire is, but don't guess. The other wires are most likely a part of a switch loop, but answer the other questions so we can get it going.
 
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Old 08-04-06, 07:58 PM
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Ok. First off, bear with me. I'm not too bright when it comes to this stuff. When I took it all apart, I was looking at it to get an idea how my other fan should be wired. But, then I came upon this clusterf$*% of wiring. And unfortunately, I did not pay close attention to what was connected. And, no, I didn't take a picture. I figured it would be easy enough to emulate, since I thought I knew what I was doing. The only thing I noticed was that the green from one side was connected to the two greens from the other side.

On the fan in the other room, there was one black connected to the black and 3 offwhite wires connected to the white, with 2 more blacks wired together and up in the ceiling.

I don't know if this information helps. I have a digital picture NOW of how it looks in the ceiling, but not sure if that would help anything.

Let me know if there's any more information. I'm attempting to attach a picture here as well.

Thanks for all your help, and for dealing with my idiocy.

Travis

 
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Old 08-04-06, 08:14 PM
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Travis: it does look like a switch loop. You didn't state if the fan will be controlled by a switch or not. So we will need to know that.
And I hate to be bearer of bad tidings, but you won't be able to attach your fan to that box. It is not fan rated, and should be replaced with a fan rated box, firmly attached to the framework.
 
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Old 08-04-06, 08:33 PM
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I plan to have the fan and light hooked together, so when I flip the light switch on, power will reach both.

And I actually took another ceiling fan out of this box originally. And there are ceiling fans connected to the rest of the boxes in this house without any issues. Would I still need to change the box in that case?
 
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Old 08-05-06, 04:40 AM
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Travis: if you filpped the switch on, the black wire by itself should be hot. If you can confirm this, then tie the whites along with the whites in your fan together, and the black and blue from your fan to the black wire by itself.
As far as the ceiling box is concerned, as a pro, I would have to change it to a fan rated box. Post back with results.
 
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Old 08-05-06, 05:06 AM
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It looks like you have a feed going into that box, a feed going from that box to something else down line, and a switch loop.

Check in the switch box and see what is in there. If I am right, you will have the white wire and the black wire both connected to the switch. You will have to find out which pair of wires this is in the ceiling box and mark them somehow. A small bit of tape will do the trick.

Once you get that far post back for further assistance, or to let us know that I am wrong and what you really have.
 
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Old 08-05-06, 05:09 AM
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I should have mentioined that I agree with chandler about the fan box thing. I have seen fans installed the way you have without problems for years. I have also seen them vibrate and tear up the wires, or come loose and want to fall down completely. Why take the chance.?
 
 

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