Cieling Fan Switch

I have a two switch plate on my wall. One controls the wiring for the cieling fan in the cieling, the other controls a wall outlet located in the corner of the room. the wiring coming out of the cieling is as follows: bare copper, black, white, and red. Is ther a way to control the light on the ciling fan independantly of the fan? Right now I have the fan wired so that the one wall switch turns both the fan and the light on at the same time. The red wire coming from the cieling is not being used, its just capped off. As you can see I am a novice at this type of wiring so any help would be appreciated.

 

Maybe. Try hooking the red wire in the ceiling to the blue (or black with a white stripe) wire from the fan, leaving the black from the ceiling connected to the black from the fan. It might work.

If experimenting is not your style, then turn off the breaker, gently pull the two switches out of the box (without disconnecting anything), and tell us everything you see.

 

If you find that the red wire is capped in the switch box-


hook the red wire in the ceiling to the blue (or black with a white stripe) wire from the fan, leaving the black from the ceiling connected to the black from the fan. Then buy a "stack-switch" (you can find them at Home Depot). A stack switch is a device that has two switches on the same yolk, stacked on top of each other. The stack-switch will have 4 screws, 2 on one side and 2 on the other. The common side will have a small copper bar connecting the two screws, and the "switched side" will not. Put the black from the fan on one of the screws on the "switched side" And put the red from the fan on the other screw on the switched side. So you should have one wire left that went to the original switch, put this wire on the common side.

 

I will definately give this a try and let you know how it worked out. Thank You once again.