I Can't turn off my ceiling fan

[Salty Thumb]

[e-mail] (TimR) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Sorry, but that sounds ridiculous. I'm not an expert, but I have installed

5 ceiling fans in my life (and installed a couple of them more than once). These were all modern fans, model year 2000 or higher. None of them had any wires other than I mentioned. If your fan switch does indeed have multiple wires, then where do they connect? You have one supply wire for the fan. Connecting your multiple wires to the one supply wire (or the fan motor) is tantamount to having one connection. If you have any splitting, it would be much more economical (and idiot proof for the installer) to have the splitting internal to the control device. I don't suppose the fan you are talking about is a Hunter Original fan?

Good advice, although most of the cheap meters I have seen are only rated for max 10 amps whereas household wiring can carry 15 or 20 amps. You don't need to know how much electricity is flowing, just whether it is on or off, which you can test with a relatively cheap light probe. But when it comes to your life, it pays to be anal.

And how exactly do you do that? I've also assembled my share of computers and what you've typed makes no sense.

[Michael Lyons]

The previous poster was not talking about installing a fan, but replacing the speed switch. Yes there is only one wire to supply power from the house to the fan. But in many fans, there is a speed switch that has one wire that bring electricity in and three that go out. They go to three different windings (coils) in the fan motor itself.

If you are checking VOLTAGE, the number of AMPS running through your meter is close to zero. Yes, I have blown the fuse in my meter once, but it was because I got frustrated and accidently went to check a live circuit with the meter set on resistance (OHMS). It stupidity, not price of the meter, that was at fault.

It makes perfect sense. He is talking about the house receptacle the computer was plugged into. AC current works by one side doing a push/pull cycle of electrons while the other side is grounded. As long a electricty is flowing first one way and then the other at the proper rate, it usually doesnt matter which side is the live one. I knew (not well) a guy who wired in some lights for some illegal plants he was growing ih the basement. He bypassed the electric company's meter (and in the process the breaker panel) to save money. He later went to change a burnt out bulb while standing on a damp cement floor in bare feet. If he hadn't switched the wires, he would be alive today. He had the screw threads of the bulb socket live instead of the little dot in the middle.

[Salty Thumb]

"Michael Lyons" wrote in news:hptOc.2496$ [e-mail]:

okay, in that case, it make sense. So between the supply and three output wires to the fan motor, is the device called a rheostat or not? And if not what is it called?

Yet another reason to keep things simple.

okay that makes a little more sense. I was thinking he was refering to an outlet on the computer and the times I considered rewiring an ATX plug for a non-standard MB. I still don't see how having a live LAN cable can give you shock unless it was coax instead of twisted pair.

[Salty Thumb]

Salty Thumb wrote in news:U2uOc.118$ [e-mail]:

never mind. if you have one of those that connects to different windings on the motor, I suppose that's just a switch. duh.

[TimR]

Yes, I didn't explain that well.

The outlet in the wall was wired so that the normal hot was neutral and vice versa. The circuit was run in thinwall electrical conduit with no separate ground wire (the EMT was serving as ground) IIRC. (It's been a while.)

The metal chassis of the computer should have been at ground. But it was hot. The computer ran fine, all it cares about is 110 VAC.

The LAN cable was twin-ax, two connectors covered by a coaxial shield, with nice big metal end connectors. So the shield and connector at this PC was hot. The next PC on the network was at proper ground, so its shield and connector were at ground. The two LAN cables were hooked together in the middle with a double female barrel connector, so when I connected them I had a hot metal connector in my left hand and a grounded one in my right hand, and got that old familiar tingle.

Had they been power wires I would have tested with a meter first, but who ever thinks of a network line carrying power?