I have tried unscrewing the top four screws and the bottoms four. I have no ideas left on how to take the glass off eithlut basically completely disassembling the fan.
Ceiling fan lightbulb replacement
fanslight
Related Solutions
The casing is more than likely nailed or screwed to the ceiling joist on the side that does not move. It may be possible to open a small slot along the face of the joist. Then run a reciprocating saw (Sawzall) along the face of the joist, eventually cutting the attachment fasteners and freeing the casing.
The risk here is you could damage other things attached to the joist, such as wiring. If that happens, you'll need to do the alternative approach. Partly to access the fasteners and partly to repair the damage.
The alternative approach is cut out a big enough panel in the ceiling to give you room to work and remove the fasteners anchoring the casing. Patching the hole isn't too much work, though matching the texture finish can be tricky. You may have to settle for a less than perfect match.
If grounding is at all possible, such as bonding to a nearby metal cold water pipe, it should be done. However you are not required to retrofit a grounding system to your house to replace one fan. If there is no reasonable grounding means, leave it unattached.
Without actually being there, and not being able to see the wiring at each of the devices, it's difficult to be sure what's going on. But here's my best guess, based on past experience.
To make it easier, I've numbered the ungrounded (hot) conductors in the photo from left to right.
- You've already established goes to a light.
- Supplies power to the switches.
- Likely goes to the fan.
- Also goes to the fan, but since the fan doesn't have a light built in, it's likely capped off at the fan.
- Probably feeds some other device, maybe a receptacle.
Why 3 and 5 are controlled by the same switch, I have no idea. Again, I can't see the room, so I have no idea what equipment you have.
If 1 and 4 are both for lights, it makes sense that a singe switch controls them.
One other thing to check, is to make sure the terminals of those switches are rated to accept more than one conductor. There should be a label on the switch that tells you what type, and how many conductors can connect.
Best Answer
You are correct in that no sane manufacturer would build something that would require disassembly of the fan to change the light bulbs.
This looks like a split glass assembly, you might have a locking ring above the fan blades, if it is a locking ring type unscrew the locking ring and it would drop down and allow you to slide one glass side out in order to change the bulbs. You might have to remove the blades to do this - but I can not be sure.
Since you do not list the make and model it is difficult to give more specifics.