Thoroughly confused about hot neutral wire, at least marked.
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Thoroughly confused about hot neutral wire, at least marked.
We finally got around to finishing the last room in our basement. The previous owner used the room as the wife's hair salon business. We plan to eventually turn it into a kitchen but for now it will be a bedroom. The room is controlled by three wall switches: 1) controls light in the middle of the room, 2) controls a large in-ceiling fan, and 3) controls a light above the far wall (was used to light a hair washing station).
My simple plan was to nix the third switch, disconnected and terminated in the receptacle, and instead install a ceiling light/fan combo in the center of the room and use one of the switches to control the light and one to control the fan. Simple enough because the middle light fixture was luckily ran with a three wire (red, white, black, and ground). Well, the white wire from the in-ceiling fan is connected via wire nut to the black wire that runs to the center light and has black electrical tape marking it to signify that it is hot.
All the other neutral wires (white) are wrapped together. I thought it might be a switch loop but, correct me if I'm wrong, you utilize those when the power goes first to the fixture, right? Anyhow, I tested it and it did not have a load. I separated the bundled white wires and black wires and was able to verify the load comes into the receptacle box.
Any ideas why this might be wired this way? Unfortunately, I disconnected the original wiring from the switch before I realized how strange everything was wired. I did notice the red wire to the ceiling was also connected to the switch but the fixture side was snipped and not connected to anything (didn't even have a wire nut on it).
I'm probably going to hire an electrician at this point, but am curious why it would be wired this way.
I hope you can visualize what I said because I tried to put it together in Microsoft Paint but it was ugly. Thanks in advance for your help!
My simple plan was to nix the third switch, disconnected and terminated in the receptacle, and instead install a ceiling light/fan combo in the center of the room and use one of the switches to control the light and one to control the fan. Simple enough because the middle light fixture was luckily ran with a three wire (red, white, black, and ground). Well, the white wire from the in-ceiling fan is connected via wire nut to the black wire that runs to the center light and has black electrical tape marking it to signify that it is hot.
All the other neutral wires (white) are wrapped together. I thought it might be a switch loop but, correct me if I'm wrong, you utilize those when the power goes first to the fixture, right? Anyhow, I tested it and it did not have a load. I separated the bundled white wires and black wires and was able to verify the load comes into the receptacle box.
Any ideas why this might be wired this way? Unfortunately, I disconnected the original wiring from the switch before I realized how strange everything was wired. I did notice the red wire to the ceiling was also connected to the switch but the fixture side was snipped and not connected to anything (didn't even have a wire nut on it).
I'm probably going to hire an electrician at this point, but am curious why it would be wired this way.
I hope you can visualize what I said because I tried to put it together in Microsoft Paint but it was ugly. Thanks in advance for your help!
Last edited by Rainman127; 10-17-18 at 06:20 PM.
#2
the white wire from the in-ceiling fan is connected via wire nut to the black wire that runs to the center light and has black electrical tape marking it to signify that it is hot.
Sometimes it is easier to just rip out what is there rather then trying to rework it to fit the new plans.