Help with ceiling fan installation. UPDATE, Still not completely working

[Yax]

I bought a hunter ceiling fan with a light attachment.

The wirings got me confused. In my ceiling, I have 1 Red wire, 1 White wire, 1 black wire and one plain copper ( I assume the copper wire is ground).

In the fan, there's 1 white wire, 1 black wire, 1 black/white and a green for ground.

Now, the manual says to attach the black to black, white to white and black/white to plain color wire. The green to ground.

So now I'm totally confused. The wire colors don't match up except for black to black and green to ground.

Anyone know how to best resolve this?


UPDATE:
Okay, so I took the advice given. When I flipped on the switches, the fan still didn't work so I removed the light attachement from the fan and tried again. Wow, this time, the fan worked.

My only guess is that when I attached the light fixture, there's a short somewhere. Do I need to put in light bulbs before the fan will work with the light fixture? Any suggestions?

 

[Pepsi90919]

how many switches do you have?

 

[dman]

Usually the Black/White wire is Blue in the kit's I've hung. It normally would go to the light kit so it can be switched on/off independently of the fan. Thus, imo, Most likely the black/white would connect to the red wire which would be a separate switch for the light... but It's late (For me), and I'm tired, and not an electrician, so don't believe me.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
how many switches do you have?

2 on the wall, one is supposed to be for light and one for fan I think.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: dman
Usually the Black/White wire is Blue in the kit's I've hung. It normally would go to the light kit so it can be switched on/off independently of the fan. Thus, imo, Most likely the black/white would connect to the red wire which would be a separate switch for the light... but It's late (For me), and I'm tired, and not an electrician, so don't believe me.

That sounds good.

I just tried white to red, black/white to Ceiling white and black to black, but when I flip on the switches, nothing happened so I guess I'll try the suggestion next.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: cheapbidder01

Originally posted by: dman
Usually the Black/White wire is Blue in the kit's I've hung. It normally would go to the light kit so it can be switched on/off independently of the fan. Thus, imo, Most likely the black/white would connect to the red wire which would be a separate switch for the light... but It's late (For me), and I'm tired, and not an electrician, so don't believe me.

That sounds good.

I just tried white to red, black/white to Ceiling white and black to black, but when I flip on the switches, nothing happened so I guess I'll try the suggestion next.

box ....... fan
bare -> green
white -> white
black -> black
blk/wht -> red

It's not working because you connected your neutral (white) to one of the hot wires on the fan.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: cheapbidder01

Originally posted by: dman
Usually the Black/White wire is Blue in the kit's I've hung. It normally would go to the light kit so it can be switched on/off independently of the fan. Thus, imo, Most likely the black/white would connect to the red wire which would be a separate switch for the light... but It's late (For me), and I'm tired, and not an electrician, so don't believe me.

That sounds good.

I just tried white to red, black/white to Ceiling white and black to black, but when I flip on the switches, nothing happened so I guess I'll try the suggestion next.

box ....... fan
bare -> green
white -> white
black -> black
blk/wht -> red

It's not working because you connected your neutral (white) to one of the hot wires on the fan.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

 

[bunker]

Quick question. Is that box you're hooking the fan up to intended to hold a ceiling fan?

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: bunker
Quick question. Is that box you're hooking the fan up to intended to hold a ceiling fan?

Yes.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: cheapbidder01

Originally posted by: dman
Usually the Black/White wire is Blue in the kit's I've hung. It normally would go to the light kit so it can be switched on/off independently of the fan. Thus, imo, Most likely the black/white would connect to the red wire which would be a separate switch for the light... but It's late (For me), and I'm tired, and not an electrician, so don't believe me.

That sounds good.

I just tried white to red, black/white to Ceiling white and black to black, but when I flip on the switches, nothing happened so I guess I'll try the suggestion next.

box ....... fan
bare -> green
white -> white
black -> black
blk/wht -> red

It's not working because you connected your neutral (white) to one of the hot wires on the fan.

Okay, so I took the advice given. When I flipped on the switches, the fan still didn't work so I removed the light attachement from the fan and tried again. Wow, this time, the fan worked.

My only guess is that when I attached the light fixture, there's a short somewhere. Do I need to put in light bulbs before the fan will work with the light fixture? Any suggestions?

 

[Electric Amish]

No you shouldn't need bulbs in it for the fan to work.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
No you shouldn't need bulbs in it for the fan to work.

Hmmm, what else can it be then? The only thing with the light attachment is 3 cables.
1 has a square plastic connection that attaches directly to the square connection in the fan. 2nd cable is black which goes to the black one in the fan with the tag that says "to light". then the 3rd is the white cable that attaches to the white one in the fan that says "to light".

There's really nothing else. I guess I'll have to live with just the fan for now.

 

[Armitage]

Are your 2 switches next to each other, or at different places in the room?
I'm wondering if this isn't a somewhat screwed-up 3-way switch instead of two switches seperately controlling 2 hot wires.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: ergeorge
Are your 2 switches next to each other, or at different places in the room?
I'm wondering if this isn't a somewhat screwed-up 3-way switch instead of two switches seperately controlling 2 hot wires.

Yeah, or if you're just wiring the fan & light to a single switch or the fan to one switch and the light to another switch.

If they're to a single switch, you'll have to use the pull-strings on the fan to get the light/fan working the way you want after throwing the switch.

amish

 

[Rogue]

Go wireless like I did. I bought the remote controlled ceiling fan because it's a real bitch to get up in the middle of the night and try to find those damn pull strings to turn on/adjust the fan. Especially if you accidentally pull the light string rather than the fan speed string. Got the wireless one with remote and the wall mount wireless remote too. Wire nut all your wires in the wall that used to connect to the wall switches together and it's all good. I absolutely love my remote controlled ceiling fan and will probably do the same for all the other rooms in my house.

 

[Yax]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: ergeorge
Are your 2 switches next to each other, or at different places in the room?
I'm wondering if this isn't a somewhat screwed-up 3-way switch instead of two switches seperately controlling 2 hot wires.

Yeah, or if you're just wiring the fan & light to a single switch or the fan to one switch and the light to another switch.

If they're to a single switch, you'll have to use the pull-strings on the fan to get the light/fan working the way you want after throwing the switch.

amish

The switches are next to each other. One should be for the light and the other one for the fan.

 

[Armitage]

Ok, sounds like it's not a 3-way setup
pop the cover off of those switches.
You should see something like this...

2 cables coming into the box ...
1 14-2 ROMEX ... kind of flat, 1 blk, 1 wht, 1 bare
1 14-3 ROMEX ... kind of round, 1 blk, 1 red, 1 wht, 1 bare

The white & ground wires from the each able should be conmnected to the same on the other cable.
the black wire from the 14-2 should go into a wire nut and 2 black wires should come out of that. Each should go into one of the switches.
The red & black wires from the 14-3 should each go into one of the switches.

Does it look like this?

What was previously hanging from the box where you are trying to hang this fan?

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: cheapbidder01

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
No you shouldn't need bulbs in it for the fan to work.

Hmmm, what else can it be then? The only thing with the light attachment is 3 cables.
1 has a square plastic connection that attaches directly to the square connection in the fan. 2nd cable is black which goes to the black one in the fan with the tag that says "to light". then the 3rd is the white cable that attaches to the white one in the fan that says "to light".

There's really nothing else. I guess I'll have to live with just the fan for now.

So there is some kind of plug-in connector that you wire to both sides, and then plug together?

 

[KK]

Just get your self one of these. I got the one with the push button on three of my fans, and also the remote for the bedroom. They can dim the lights also.

KK

 

[Rogue]

That stuff is far more expensive than the offical Hunter kit I bought at Home Depot. Granted, my fan already had a remote with it from the start, but the wall mount kit I bought came with the wall mounted wireless remote that mounts where the standard light switch would and a box that goes in the ceiling, wired into the fan. I paid $25 at Home Depot for that kit and it's actually branded by Hunter.

EDIT: N/M. I can't find the one I got for $25, but I see the ones you suggested are in fact Hunter branded ones too. I just found this though and might need to get it now!

Ceiling Fan/TV remote

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: Rogue
That stuff is far more expensive than the offical Hunter kit I bought at Home Depot. Granted, my fan already had a remote with it from the start, but the wall mount kit I bought came with the wall mounted wireless remote that mounts where the standard light switch would and a box that goes in the ceiling, wired into the fan. I paid $25 at Home Depot for that kit and it's actually branded by Hunter.

Yeah, it's more expensive than Lowes or Home Depot. That site was just for informative purposes. I got mine from lowes, they ran about 35 a piece.

KK