I'm replacing an existing ceiling fan (fan only) with one with a light kit. In both outlet boxes for that fan, I have 2 black wires, one red and a ground. In the ceiling, I only have black, white and ground.

I installed the Hunter fan originally with black and blue/black to black in the ceiling, and white to white in the ceiling. However, I wanted to install a dimmer for the light and discovered the red wire in the outlets. I bought a switch with separate dimmers for light and fan that matched the wiring existing in the outlet, but don't see how to dim each separately with the existing ceiling wiring.

The sleeve for the wiring in the ceiling does not match the sleeve in the outlet box. I have no idea what the red wire is used for in this case.

The house is a 7 year old home, and no modifications were done to this wiring since construction.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Dan

 

Welcome to the forums! What "outlet boxes" are you referring to? Are you referring to a switch box? Naming things right is important for us to help. "Outlets" are ceiling boxes for lights, receptacles, etc. Switch boxes house....well, switches.

 

You are correct, I meant Switch boxes. The wiring in the switch boxes (this fan has 2 switches for the fan) has red wires, but there is no red wire in the ceiling box for the fan.

 

You have a pair of 3-way switches controlling the power to one ceiling outlet box. The red wire is one of the pair of travelers for the 3-way switches. The new switch you bought probably has one single-pole controller for the fan and another single-pole controller for the light, and requires that each control be separately from the switch to the fan/light combo. If so, that won't work with your existing wiring.

The easiest solution may be to restore the 3-way switch setup and to buy a remote control that has a dimmer for the light.