new bathroom fan has 3 wires old has four

i'm fairly competent (lol) just no experience with this kinda thing. i have an electrician if i need on...but i figure its just connecting 3 wires good to go....

but my old fan had a light and a fan and there are 4 wires coming from the house.....

1 black/hot
1 white/neutral
1 white/neutral
1 white with black crosses (ground)

what do i do with the extra white.......

i don't know exactly where they come from

its possible the 2 whites come from each side of the light switch so you can turn the fan on by the fan light off.....?

 

The two whites are neutrals and can be tied together, leaving you with an even three Are the fan and light operated off separate switches?

 

ok makes sense...

the fan/light is on one switch
there is a bathroom light on another switch

the two switches are on the same switch box

i put a light in the fan/light and through the simple logic test declared that you can't have the fan on with out the fans light being on.......but i didn't test it with a run fan (ok prob gonna have to ignore that paragraph)

ill post a pic but you can't tell where the wires go.....but there's a plug for the fan (you can kinda see it towards the top) i guess and it has a black and a white.....the ground seems to go to the light or the housing and the other white goes to the light....

but the light needs a black doesn't it?

 

That doesn't make sense. Did you really mean from the house or from the fan? Note a ground is not "white with black crosses" even in Canada as far as I know. Why do you think "white with black crosses" is ground?

 

k its possible its not the ground i just ruled it as such cause the others are clearly white and black...

it could be white with green crosses...


but i'm sure i made sense...there's 4 wires from the house going to the old fan/light....new fan only needs 3....

 

Normally you would have a cable with a black, white, and bare or a cable with black, white, red, and bare. White with black is used as an alternate to blue on fan light combos. White/black might be found in 4-conductor cable but there would be only one white. If conduit white/black is not a common color used for that.

What color wires at the switch?

 

ill have to get my electrician boy in...i could keep going and open the switch but at the point i may as well by the case of beer and make the phone call....ill be back if i need more help...thx all....

 

I have see it before and you will have to get both netural hook up together at the junction box and the fan and light hot conductor are wired seperated unless you want both to be on one switch then tie together.

That is pretty common item however most exhaust fan junction box are very small so it take a fitinse to get it in the box.

I did see that you will call in electrician to come in that is fine all it depending on the conferation of the switches { the electrician can able sort it out real quick }

Merci.
Marc

 

Unless you open the switch to trace the wires back you are not going to be able to identify which is which.