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How to wire fan/light combo to two switch single pole switch?
Ok. I am trying to hook up a new fan/light combo and would like them to operate separately. From the fan light there is a red wire and a green. From the fan exhaust there is a black and white wire. At the ceiling there are 2 separate lengths of wire coming in. One has a black ,white and ground wire and 1 has a black,white,red and ground wire. I currently have the white wires together and all the ground wires capped together. At the switch I have a 2 switch single pole switch I would like to hook up to operate the fan and light separately. At the switch I also have the whites together and the grounds together. Where do I go from here.
I am replacing a single switched light in this case. Coming into the switch is the same as the celing. One cable with blck,white red & ground and one cable with black, white and ground. Blacks are capped together and pigtailed to bottom of switch and red going out. Whites and grounds each capped together.
So do all the black wires stay together in ceiling and the red goes to the light?
2 Answers
- Irv SLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
Not enough information, but I'm sure that
At the fan/lt. combo red and black will be for switched power to the fan and light,
the white will be for the neutral, (common to both), and the green, ground.
It's a very good bet that all those whites in the ceiling box are not neutrals.
One will be part of the switch circuit.
What comes into that switch box?
I'd expect the Blk./Wht pair in the ceiling is incoming power and neutral and the
Red/Blk./Wht. cable is the switch wiring.
I would expect only the Red/Blk./Wht from the ceiling in the switch box.
If you are replacing an existing two switch unit the white may be split into two pigtails.
If so, these will be 'hot' incoming power from the ceiling, (connected to that Blk. in the ceiling box),
and red and black, switched power returns to
fan & light.
- Anonymous5 years ago
It doesn't have two hot wires, or shouldn't. It should have only one continuous hot, and one switch leg. Standard switches do not get a neutral. If you think switches work with a neutral, you need to seriously re-evaluate your knowledge of electricity, or hire a professional and leave your experimentation and discovery to safe lower voltage where you will do little harm. Depending on how the circuit is wired, you may have a power cable (hot+neutral) to the fixture, and a switchleg cable (hot+ switchleg) to the switch (in which the white wire should be marked, and be the continuous hot), or power cable to the switch box, with a switched cable to the fixture. In that case the whites in the switch box are connect together and tucked into the rear. For a proper tester, you should get a Wiggy (trade name), which applies some load. A neon tester can show false positives due to current leakage.
