Urgent question: Ceiling fan requiring switch?

[Phouka]

Hi,all -- I've been trying to find an answer for this, but (lacking access to the NEC) cannot determine what the code is regarding switches for ceiling fans. The electrician is pulling wire tomorrow, and I would like to be a bit better informed before he/she shows up:

Does a standard ceiling fan installation (either just a fan or a fan/light combination) REQUIRE a wall switch installation? Or can I have the circuit for the fans and control them via pull chains? We currently have no ceiling fixtures in the rooms in question, only half-hot outlets.

(We have a tendency to turn on the fan and leave it running for, oh, ten years or so and have no real need for a switch.)

Thanks for any info!

-- RObin

[Wade Lippman]

Anyone buying your house will find the absence of two switches to be a big negative.

[Robin]

Thanks! I'll call the town today and ask. We have an old house, and any project that required fishing wire through the walls is a tough one. If I don't have to, we will be much happier!!

-- Robin

[Jack Gavin]

These are also called "half-switched outlets".

The tab connecting the bottom and top halves of the hot side of the outlet is broken off, so that the two hots may be controlled separately.

Then a constantly hot wire is connected to one, and a switched hot wire is connected to the other.

This allows a clock or night light or whatever to continue to receive power even when the table lamp is switched off from the wall switch.

I tend to put the switched outlet on the bottom, since it is occupied for long periods by table lamps and such, and the constantly hot top -- available for transient uses, like plugging in the vacuum -- is more accessible.

-- Jack Gavin

[meirman]

In alt.home.repair on Mon, 14 Jul 2003 17:14:07 -0400 "Jack Gavin" posted:

Thanks

Makes sense. I'll remember that.

P&M

Meirman

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