I am trying to figure out how to run power to the ceiling fan from a wall mounted light switch. The previous ceiling fan that was installed was removed before I could look at how it was wired up, and following the installation guide that came with the fan hasn't been of much use. The problem that I am having is that the power comes into the ceiling mounted box first, then goes over to the light switch on the wall. I tried the basic configuration of hooking the black and blue wire both to the black feed wire, and green to bare, and white to white, but as soon as you turn on the light switch, it throws the breaker. I also tried to hook up the blue and black wires seperately, but it would only provide power to one portion of the fan, i.e. either the light would come on but not the fan, or visa-versa, depending on which wire (blue or black) that I had hooked into the incoming hot wire. The wall switch is only a two pole light switch, but like I mentioned earlier, it worked with the other fan/light combo. Do I need to switch to a four pole light switch? For now, I have simply eliminated the switch until I get this figured out, and they can turn on the light and fan with the pull chains.

 

Welcome to the forums! What you have is a switch loop going from the ceiling box to the light switch. In essence the white and black wires going to the switch are both to be considered black, as all you are doing is breaking the connection of the hot wire to the fixture.
So, in the ceiling box you should have a black and white wire from your electrical source and a white and black wire from the switch loop. You would hook up the neutral from the source to the neutral on the fan. Hook up the white wire from the switch to the black wire from the source with a wire nut, and the black wire to the blue and black on the fan. This way, you can control the fan and light from the switch, but not independently, since you only have one switch. On and off, with speed control via chain pulls. If the configuration I mentioned above is different from what you have, let us know all the wires and their colors and where they come from so we can help further.

 

Chandler, thanks for the prompt reply. I will try this fix first thing. I love to do things myself and often run into problems that require help from others, especially with this old house (1942 model) that we are fixing up. Thanks again, this will forever be on my favorites list.