let's talk electrical

[Sean Hughes]

OK, we've been in our house for 5 years. the house itself is about 17 years old. It was time to install a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom. The fan runs off a dmimer knob. As i uninstalled the old one the wiring setup had me somewhat confused. It is 14/3 wiring. The fan has your typical black/white/ground. Well it was hooked up as follows...white(fan) to red(feed), black(fan) and ground(fan) to ground(feed). The black and white feed lines were capped off. I tried to hook the new fan up normally adn cap the red but it didn't work, so I wired it up as the old work and it seems to work.

The question becomes is the wiring setup correct?

On a side note the fan remote doesn't always work. I sometimes have to turn the wall switch off and on a couple of times and then it works........weird!!!

Thanks,

[George Bregar]

Sounds like you have a three way switch and it's internals are bad. How is the switch wired?

[Sean Hughes]

George, I didn't open the switch. I may have to check that though. I actually just left it their in the on/high position thinking that that's just the on position. I should probably change it though.

[Prashun Patel]

You should check the voltage on the feed first.

B-W should be 110
R-W should be 110
B-G should be 110
R-G should be 110
W-G should be 0
B-R should be 0

Regardless, the feed should have 2 hots, 1 return/neutral, and 1 ground.

My guess is the feed Black is dead or wasn't connected at the switch/box, so you only have one hot, Red.

If yes, then I believe the correct wiring would be:

Red(feed) --> Black(fan)
White(feed) --> White (fan)
Ground (feed) --> ground (fan).

Tying ground and white together anywhere but the breaker box is supposed to be dangerous in the event that white gets shorted. But I never understood why.

[George Bregar]

George, I didn't open the switch. I may have to check that though. I actually just left it their in the on/high position thinking that that's just the on position. I should probably change it though. I would check the wiring to the switch...and wire to and from the switch appropriately.