Electrical Help

[swanysto]

I am more of a drywall/framing guy, never got into too much electrical, so this might be a stupid question. The house is wired in 14/2. I have to wire a fan with light to the ceiling. The way I think about it in my head, I need to run two 14/2 wires to get it accomplished. However, I am thinking I may be able to use 14/3, but then I don't know if I need the extra neutral wire or not. I have attached a diagram of what I am trying to do. Should I just go ahead and wire it up like this, or would it be better to use a 14/3?

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TIA

 

[amdskip]

14/3 would be the cleaner way to do it.

 

[Vincent]

The black wire can be the hot for the light, the red wire can be the hot for the fan, and they can share the neutral.

 

[jaha2000]

10/10 for best paint diagram ever

 

[NutBucket]

Yes, it depends on what you want your wall switch to do. Typically fans are installed so that the wall switch turns the whole thing on/off. The individual function of the fan/light is controlled either by the pull chains on the fan or a remote. If I had the option I would wire it with 14/3 but I would install a wall switch that allows you to set the fan speed. Something like this:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lutron-S...ite-S2-LFSQH-WH/100059262?N=bvmw#.UlQ9T0B6Z8E

So you would need two hots, one for the fan and one for the lights. So-long pull chains!

 

[DrPizza]

Actually, more often, I've seen the lights run from the switch, and the fan run from the pull chain on it. If the OP wanted to do that, rather than control the fan from the switch (as well as the lights), then the OP could run from the breaker box (or wherever he branches off from) to the ceiling box, and run another 14/2 to the switch in order to control the light. Thus, there's be a hot running from the ceiling box to the switch, and the white wire from the switch is used as the return line. (Not sure if it's code, but I've always seen (and always do it myself) electricians wrap a few inches of the white wire with black electrical tape so that there's no mistaking it as a neutral.

 

[natto fire]

Yes, it depends on what you want your wall switch to do. Typically fans are installed so that the wall switch turns the whole thing on/off. The individual function of the fan/light is controlled either by the pull chains on the fan or a remote. If I had the option I would wire it with 14/3 but I would install a wall switch that allows you to set the fan speed. Something like this:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lutron-S...ite-S2-LFSQH-WH/100059262?N=bvmw#.UlQ9T0B6Z8E

So you would need two hots, one for the fan and one for the lights. So-long pull chains!

This. If you only have one switch OP, you can just tie both hot leads from the fan to the black wire on your 14/2.

Looking at your diagram, it looks like you are wiring this up to a single gang double switch? In that case, you can do like you said and just run a 14/3 from the fan to switch box. You only need one neutral at the fan, and it will be tied to your feeder's neutral in the switch box.

 

[swanysto]

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to run a 14/3. I was thinking of using a dimmer like NutBucket suggested, but I have to install 6 of these things, so that will get expensive. Maybe at some point down the line, I will switch(no pun intended) out the double switch for a dimmer. That will be a much easier task, cause the ceiling will already be wired.

 

[NutBucket]

Excellent plan!