An old ceiling fan, which worked fine, had no lamp and four wires: green, blue, black and white. The ceiling has a black, red and white wires, plus a bare copper wire. (Using multi-meter, the only non-zero voltage measured between any pair of these wires seemed to be ~110v between the red and white wires, and only when the wall switch is "on.") The black wire from the old fan was connected to the red wire from ceiling, and the white wire from the old fan was connected to the white wire in ceiling. The black wire in ceiling and bare wire in ceiling were not connected to anything, nor were the green and blue wires from the old fan. (In the case of the green/bare wires, that seems wrong). The old fan was operated by the wall switch. It also had a chain for changing speeds. I'm replacing it with a new-from-the-box (although probably close to 20 years old) Hunter "Silent Breeze" ceiling fan, along with a Hunter lighting kit I bought separately. Inside the switch housing cover of the new fan, I connected the black/white wire from the switch housing to the black wire from the light fixture, and the white wire from the switch housing to the white wire from the light fixture. (That is per the instructions that came with the lighting kit.) At the top of the new fan are four wires: white, black, black with white stripe, and green. There is also a green wire on the ceiling plate of the new fan. The new fan instructions say to connect green wires from fan and the ceiling plate to the bare wire from ceiling; the white wire from fan to white wire from ceiling; the black wire from fan to black wire from ceiling; and black/white wire from fan to the "control switch wire," which I assume to be the red wire from the ceiling. According to instructions, the result is supposed to be: "control the light with a wall switch and the fan with a pull chain (one wall switch required)." However, the actual result is that the pull chain controls the lamp (only when the wall switch is on), but the fan does not operate regardless of wall switch or pull chain position. There is a second wall switch next to the one that controls the red & white wires in the ceiling, but the second wall switch controls a wall outlet and doesn't seem to be connected with any of the ceiling wires. I have not yet removed the wall switch(es) to see how they are wired. My house was built in the early 1960s in Fairfax County, Virginia. I have lived here for almost 20 years, but have not made any changes to the home's wiring during that time. Besides the fact that the pull chain controls the lamp rather than the fan, and the fan doesn't work at all, I'm confused about the unused black wire in the ceiling--should it always be "hot?" If so, why don't I measure any voltage between it and the white wire in the ceiling (presumably neutral)?
- posted
3 years ago