Yesterday, I installed a new ceiling fan in my bedroom. Ran it for a few hours, everything was working fine. Later that evening, I turned on the light in my bathroom, which is an LED fixture. After about two minutes, the fixture started blinking, then went out altogether. After about 5 minutes, I am able to turn the light back on, only to have the same thing happen. It will blink, then go out.

The reason I mention the ceiling fan is because it is on the same circuit as the bathroom light. So I fear I have done something incorrectly, even though the fan works just fine. No other circuits are affected, only the bathroom light. The fan keeps running, and outlets in the bathroom on the same circuit work just fine. No breakers are tripped.

Lastly, the ceiling fan is controlled by a dimmer switch. This was here when I purchased the house. Not sure if this would matter at all.

Any ideas? Could it be a bad fixture and its just bad timing with the ceiling fan install? Or is there something I should be looking for? Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to the forums! You didn't indicate so, but is the bathroom light part of the ceiling fan unit? If so is there a separate switch for the light as opposed to the fan? What kind of dimmer switch is associated with the fan? Click position, or variable? You can post a picture of the switching pulled from the box and up into your fan box wiring. It may help us diagnose it. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

 

chandler,
The bathroom LED fixture is operated by a normal light switch. It is not part of the ceiling fan assembly. The LED fixture is in my bathroom. The ceiling fan is in my bedroom. However, they operate off the same breaker.

The dimmer switch that operates the ceiling fan is a variable type switch. You push the knob to turn it on, the turn the dial to operate dimming function. I was going to replace that light switch as well, but there were a few more wires in the box than I thought.

One other thing. The dimmer switch did not function properly before I replaced the ceiling fan. The dimming function worked, but the push on/off function did not work. To turn off the light I had to just turn dimmer all the way down. Like I said, I was going to replace it, so I pulled it out of the wall. There were more wires than I expected, so I put it back in the wall and did not touch any wires. When I got the dimmer back in the wall, the push on/off now worked.

If you still need pictures of anything, let me know and I will post them right away. Thanks so much.

 

Not that the dimmer would have anything to do with the LED, but it is putting a strain on the ceiling fan motor. They are generally not friendly with variable dimmers, unless made for ceiling fan operation. Your dimmer should have only 3 wires going to it, so if you say there are more, then pulling it out and letting us see pictures of it, may help, especially since it is on the same circuit.

 

Chandler-
Here is what I have. Two main leads come in. The whites from each are tied together with a wire nut. Off of each black there is a pigtail, and these pigtails both go the the same spot on the back of the dimmer switch. I wasn't sure how I would hook this up to a new switch. I have a 3 way rocker style switch I would like to use if that would be appropriate for this application. If so, how would I hook it up? Pictures attached.

 

What you have there is 2) two wire cables.

One cable is power in and one goes to the fan. Since there is only a single hot line going to the fan.... you can only switch power to the entire thing. You may have to use a standard wall switch there and use the fans remote control.

In order to use a dual switch.... you'd need to replace the cable between the switch and the fan with a three wire cable.

 

Thanks PJ. I can run and get a regular wall switch. That being said, how would I connect all those wires to the switch? A hot and neutral to each side of the switch, and get rid of the pigtails? And do you think this could be causing my issue with the LED fixture in the bathroom? Thanks. Running to Lowes to buy the switch.

 

Remove the two yellow wire nuts from the black dimmer. Those two black wires will go directly on to the switch. The white wires stay connected and capped just as they are. There should be a bare ground wire inside the box that connects to the switch's ground terminal.

This switch is downstream from your problem and is not the cause of your problem.

 

Replaced the wall switch no problem. Turns out that the issue with the led was the fixture itself. I put a new fixture in and so far no problems. Thanks for you help everyone.

 

Glad you got the problem resolved.

 

Solved two problems with one thread. Great