Adding light to ceiling fan

Cowboy

Cowboy

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So that is how it is supposed to be does anyone see anything wrong? I have two switches at the wall I'm guessing one for fan (works) one for lights not sure.
 
Looks a little more complicated than I want to guess at based upon the pictures, but you should have two 'hot' lines, one for each switch. Generally in the fan, the blue wire will be hot for the light. See the following: https://besthomegear.com/how-to-wire-a-ceiling-fan-with-light/

The wires inside of a ceiling fan are relatively simple, but you have to know what each one is to connect them correctly. Typically, you’ll see black, white, blue and green wires inside a ceiling fan. While you should read the instructions on your new fan carefully to be sure, the convention is that the black wire is a power supply for the fan, the blue wire is a power supply for the light, the white wire is neutral, and the green wire is a ground.


In addition to the wires on the fan itself, you’ll need to identify the wires in your ceiling box. You should find one black wire and one white wire in the box, as well as a bare copper ground wire. As with the wires in the fan itself, the black wire is hot, and the white wire is neutral.


Although this usually won’t apply, there will be a slight difference if you have independent switches for the fan and the light, rather than running both from the same switch. If you have a double switching setup, you should find an additional wire, usually red, in your ceiling box. If you’re wiring a ceiling fan with light with one switch, though, this additional wire won’t be needed.
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Cowboy said:
@tanstaafl72555 i even double checked my connections. Is there anything obvious you see?
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What happens / happened when you applied power, if you have?
 
@Cowboy post a picture of the light switches
 
Looks like the right one may be red for fan power and you have a black going for light power. The switch on the left will have hot voltage coming in and out going to the light. Trace these lines to the box going to the fan. You should see a black, red, white and bare copper going to the fan. If I am reading the wires right, the red is hot for the fan, black is hot for the light, white is neutral, and green is ground. If you can, find a wiring diagram for the fan make model.
 
Cowboy said:
View attachment 264181View attachment 264182


So that is how it is supposed to be does anyone see anything wrong? I have two switches at the wall I'm guessing one for fan (works) one for lights not sure.
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yeah. if you have two switches in the wall, BEFORE you hook up the wires (you are wired for two sep circuits), try putting a meter on both hot wires in ceilin and turning power on and off at switch and see what happens. You have to know what happens at the switches themselves before you can know how to wire the light/fan. Hope that helps and I will be back and forth to desk all day if I can help. If need be, we can talk voice.
 
Hi do not remove the black box, that is a capacitor.
Any remote receivers would be at the top of the fan mount bracket at the ceiling.

The fan may have the hot lead from the switch capped off since the fan had no light.
 
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Button Pusher said:
Hi do not remove the black box, that is a capacitor.
Any remote receivers would be at the top of the fan mount bracket at the ceiling.

The fan may have the hot lead from the switch capped off since the fan had no light.
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Shoot you are correct once I zoomed in on my phone. It looked smaller in the pic
 
I had two rooms with fans just like this so I guess I need to check the light itself and then take it to the second room.
 
I you are adding the fan, yeah they are a pain. Check pull, check switches on the fan body, and check wall switch. And check them in ALL the possible positions you can think of. Don't take anything about what you think they do for granted.

While the breaker is off you could pull the wall switch and make sure it's connected well. Possibly drop the fan and check those connections too. Those boxes are tight and they usually have too much wire that really has to be pushed around at install.

If those were in the home when you moved in, you could call the contractor. They should have worked when you got there.
 
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Remove the canopy screws, you can see how the fan was wired. Remove one fan blade, make it easier to work up at ceiling.
Gotta clock back in at The Home Depot. 22 years in electrical dept. I've made the mistakes so the customers don't have to. :)
 
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Box in the ceiling MUST have white, red, black, and Green.
Red and black power light and fan. It matters which powers what because another location switch is for coming and going out different doorways. Between the switches are traveler wires to make switches work.
When the fan was installed all the ceiling wires needed to be correctly wired unless you will never use a light kit.

My whole house switches were all wired wrong if fan and lights were involved. It took many hours for me to pin down correct wires to do what. One of the forum members who once worked for me and I both got pissed after a couple hours.
 
chiefjason said:
I you are adding the fan, yeah they are a pain. Check pull, check switches on the fan body, and check wall switch. And check them in ALL the possible positions you can think of. Don't take anything about what you think they do for granted.

While the breaker is off you could pull the wall switch and make sure it's connected well. Possibly drop the fan and check those connections too. Those boxes are tight and they usually have too much wire that really has to be pushed around at install.

If those were in the home when you moved in, you could call the contractor. They should have worked when you got there.
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Bought an older home. So I'm not sure if they were ever hooked up right.
BlackGun said:
Box in the ceiling MUST have white, red, black, and Green.
Red and black power light and fan. It matters which powers what because another location switch is for coming and going out different doorways. Between the switches are traveler wires to make switches work.
When the fan was installed all the ceiling wires needed to be correctly wired unless you will never use a light kit.

My whole house switches were all wired wrong if fan and lights were involved. It took many hours for me to pin down correct wires to do what. One of the forum members who once worked for me and I both got pissed after a couple hours.
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I think this is probably the problem that it was never done right. I guess I need to make a trip to Lowe's and pick up a power detector.
 
BlackGun said:
Box in the ceiling MUST have white, red, black, and Green.
Red and black power light and fan. It matters which powers what because another location switch is for coming and going out different doorways.
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Good point. I would remove the fan, verify these wires in the ceiling box, carefully separate them and turn both switches off. With your voltage probe / volt meter verify that the circuits are dead: red and black to both white and green. As a wiring safety measure also check white-green which should not have voltage on them. Then turn one switch on at a time and verify that one has power to white and green, but not the other. Then turn that switch off, and turn the other on. Verify the other hot wire has voltage to white and green, but not the first one. Then turn on both switches and verify that both have voltage to white and green (should not have voltage from red - black at any time - as one or both should be open circuit or have the same voltage). Be CAREFUL to avoid touching the black and red!
 
Both switches on wall have off and on, so they are not three way switches, those are not labeled.
 
Button Pusher said:
Both switches on wall have off and on, so they are not three way switches, those are not labeled.
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a three way switch does not refer to a switch itself having three positions, but having two "legs" as it were in the circuit, so that two different on/off switches may control the same circuit.
 
tanstaafl72555 said:
a three way switch does not refer to a switch itself having three positions, but having two "legs" as it were in the circuit, so that two different on/off switches may control the same circuit.
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Correct, another reply above referenced three way switches, controlling a fixture from two locations.
Three way (and four way) switches have no OFF/ON markings.

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SInce the fan motor runs fine before the light kit install, I don't think you have a remote installed with the fan, when power is turned off, the receiver will not let the fan start up unless you use the remote control. You should have a black or red wire that is capped off at the ceiling junction box.
Connect that wire to the blue wire that runs to the fan light at the canopy.

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Ok at the ceiling box the blue wire is not hooked up at all. Do I hook it up to the red wire from the ceiling that looks like it is powering the fan? This would at least let me have light in the room control by the one switch correct?1605100183780.jpeg
 
Otherwise it looks like I would have to take the entire fan down to get to the one wall switch it's meant to be on.
 
Cowboy said:
Ok at the ceiling box the blue wire is not hooked up at all. Do I hook it up to the red wire from the ceiling that looks like it is powering the fan? This would at least let me have light in the room control by the one switch correct?View attachment 264504
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That’s what @Button Pusher said to do above 3 posts above yours.
 
Cowboy said:
Ok at the ceiling box the blue wire is not hooked up at all. Do I hook it up to the red wire from the ceiling that looks like it is powering the fan? This would at least let me have light in the room control by the one switch correct?
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Remember the coloring convention: red and blue are the fan and light "hot" in the fan. White, unless otherwise marked (and you have one marked red that is connected to a black (presumably hot) wire) is neutral and green is safety ground. If you were to connect the blue wire into this tap, if the wiring is as I just said, yes, the fan and light should come on together. If it does, then you know the fan wiring and the question becomes where is the wire from the second switch going? Is it going to the fan and just capped off in the box (you may need to drop the fan to find out) or is it going somewhere else like and outlet, as @Button Pusher suggested may be the case.
 
I remember my first ceiling fan job. PITA and working over head doesn't help. A couple beers in and few sparks/blown breakers and it was finally installed/fixed right lol

 
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