Installing a ceiling fan and light switch

Permits may be required for interior electrical work. When working with electricity, always remember to turn off the power, test the wiring with an electrical tester or voltmeter to ensure the power is off, secure the panel box so no one can accidentally re-engage power while you are working, and consult a professional to ensure you are doing things correctly and within the specifications of your state and local codes. Read all the instructions and safety information that comes with your ceiling fan.

The four methods are:. We recommend this method when you simply cannot run a switch into the room. It does require that you have the ability to bring power directly to the fan from a nearby location. Wiring this type of electrical connection looks like this:. As you can see, this simple connection feeds power to both the fan and optional light kit. The power for the fan motor will typically be black, while most modern-day fans also have a separate blue wire that supplies power to the lights.

This method and the following are the most commonly used. They only require a single light switch. Many older homes never gave any thought to wiring up a second switch.

The wiring for this type of electrical connection looks like this:. As you can see, we switched the hot line going to the light kit by inserting the switch. If you do this, wrap black electrical tape around the exposed white wire. While we show a small strip of electrical tape, we recommend actually wrapping it around all the exposed white wire.

Note that we opted to wire the fan motor directly to the power source. This also keeps the fan usable regardless of the position of the wall switch. This is a slight adaptation of the above method. It switches power for both the fan and the light kit from the wall switch. This lets you turn the fan on and off with the wall switch along with the light.

This wiring method is completely up to you. Some prefer method 2, while others myself included typically opt for this method. Note that power is fed through the switch. Both the fan motor and the light kit get their power from the switch. As expected, the neutral and grounds are simply tied together and all is well. This is the most versatile way to electrically wire a ceiling fan with a light kit. It allows for separate control over both the fan and the light in the room. There are also lots of really convenient switches that put this dual control into one neat little package.

Some even give you the ability to dim the lights — definitely a nice touch! And here is what the electrical wiring would look like for this situation:. The basic idea is that your power supply line is feeding both switches. Each switch then feeds either the fan black wire or light kit blue wire. While code makes certain stipulations, there are typically different ways to accomplish a wiring connection. What you are doing here is using the single hot black wire to power both the switches. You can do this by jumping a longer length of wire to both switches.

Jumping means that you strip the insulation away from a small area of wire. Make it just large enough to loop around the hot terminal. You then loop that exposed wire around the hot terminal of the first switch. Finally, strip the end and connect that to the second switch. The hot returns are then the red wire and the white wire which you tape black on both ends to designate it as a hot wire. You can also jump the ground wire. This method of jumping wires is nice in that it eliminates the need for wire nuts.

It also makes for a simpler wiring scheme and gives you more room to work in the box! This is identical to situation 3 above.

However we wanted to outline the wiring differences when the power is actually at the switch instead of in the ceiling. We find this method is encountered in roughly fifty percent of the time in older homes. We have a couple good sketchers on board.

Looks like there's everything you need in that switch box. Even if you want both on one switch for now, a spare power wire, capped off, is cheap insurance against a change of mind or a new device in the future. Show 5 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Harper - Reinstate Monica Harper - Reinstate Monica k 19 19 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Add a comment. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google.

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