Asking any electricians for help if they have the time.
I have a standard ceiling fan with hot, neutral, and ground coming into the switch box. I have a double switch (like pic related) I want to install on the wall in order to control the fan and light separately. I can't do this, right, at least not with the way the wiring is setup? Without an extra wire coming from the ceiling fan, it's not possible?
Thanks for any help.
This is a common issue, and you've got two basic options here:
run an additional wire between your switch box and the ceiling fans wiring box so that you can switch the hot lines separately from one another
OR
use a wireless ceiling fan switch. It installs where your current switch is located and has a reciever in the wiring box for the fan/light and allows you to switch them separately without having to run new wire. It'll run you about 20$ on amazon. You can also get them with dimmer controls or home automation garbage.
If you try to get one with dimmer functions, make sure it is compatible with your fan and light bulb/fixture first.
That's kind what I thought would be the case. Honestly, it's not that big a deal since we can just use the pull chain, but I was just curious to see if my hunches were right.
I appreciate it. Take it easy.
For the wireless to work doesn’t he need to change the wiring on the fan anyway, because when the fan is off there won’t be a hot to power the wireless light
Option 3
Buy a 433 mhz relay and make your own remote for a fraction of what a dedicated remote costs
Hijacking your thread because I have a ceiling fan question. I currently have a switch on the wall that doesn’t do anything because my fan doesn’t have a light. The wire is run from the switch to the ceiling fan box though so I could change the fan if I wanted to include a light. I plan on installing wall sconces instead to my walls. Can I attach some romex to the available hot wire in the ceiling box and the fan neutral and run them through the ceiling down my wall to the sconces?
Or would I be better off just wiring my sconces to the outlets they’ll be over and getting some that have switches since they’ll always be hot.
whichever route is easier will be fine. Both routes are acceptable.
Yeah, why not?
> I want wall sconces
You’re wife wants wall sconces.
So, usually you need to put in some kind of metal conduit across the ceiling and down to the sconce.
Inside the conduit, you typically run the wire without the outer white PVC jacket.
Also, if there are other circuits on that leg, you don’t want too many, for lighting, around 10 is safe I think. I think that standard is changing due to LEDs being 2 W instead of 60 W.
Despite all the screaming this is gonna get, I've disconnected the bare ground wire from actual 'ground' and used it as the neutral. I then run the fan on the black hot wire and use the white as the hot light wire.
I paint the white wire with a red permanent marker at each end (at the fan and in the wall box)
I'm not going to be handling the fan so I run it without a 'ground' wire and DGAF.
Hmph. That's just the sort of thing you kids carp about boomers doing. Good to see that the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.
was going to mention this, not as a real solution, but as a technically it works solution. probably the fastest cheapest thing you could do.
It doesn't look so bad if you strip white insulation of the same size white wire and slide it over the bare wire being used as the neutral.
Do it on both ends.
The ground wire from the source can still be used in the box to ground the switch.
House I bought had ceiling fans with pull chains for the fan and light, but a single switch. Turned out there were already separate hot wires wired to that same switch because they were too lazy to swap the switch to a dual one.
Pull chains are infuriating at night.
it's pretty easy actually, I'm surprised nobody said the answer yet. open the ceiling fan wiring and hook the black to the fan, white to the light, and ground to the neutral. in the switch box make sure the hot in on the switch and the white and black from the fan run are on each the other terminals
any good resources to learn how to (theoretically) wire a house? even making this post is a thought crime in australia. i've got an intermediate knowledge of electronics and the circuits seem pretty simple so i need a book that explains to me why it isn't
>why it isn't
It is simple from an electrical point of view. The complication is that wires are expensive and pulling a wire is potentially complicated and destructive. The sugar on top is that 1800 watts is enough to kill you or burn your house down.