I have a ceiling fan with separate fan speed control and switch on the wall. I would like to replace it with a plain light fixture if it is not too hard to get the wiring into a safe configuration.
It is wired to a switch and fan speed control as follows:
All these connections are inside the switch box with the fan control and switch, except between cable 2 and the fan.
Is it compliant and safe to simply remove the fan control and abandon the black wire in cable 2?
This is in the US. The house was built in 1950s, but the wiring in this room appears much newer.
There are a few related questions already present. I don't believe any of these cover my case, but I could be wrong.
- Light to fan
- Light to fan
- Fan to light; but underspecified and no answers
- Fan to light;
but underspecified and no answers - Fan to light; my wires at the fixture are different
Best Answer
Without more details about the wiring, it's impossible to provide an answer that's exactly accurate to your specific wiring.
Turn off power, and verify that it's off before you begin.
In general, there will be a grounded (neutral) wire connected to the white wire from the fan/light. This wire will have to be connected to the grounded (neutral) wire from the new light fixture. There will be one or more grounding wires from the new fixture, these will connect to the bare/green grounding conductor coming from the ceiling. Currently the grounding conductor(s) should be attached to the green wire from the fan/light.
Finally, there should be two ungrounded (hot) conductors that come from the switches. One will be attached to the black wire coming from the fan/light, while the other will be attached to the blue wire from the fan/light. The wire coming from the fan switch (attached to black wire), can be capped off using a twist-on wire connector, or other approved means. The other wire (attached to blue wire), will be connected to the ungrounded (hot) wire from the new light fixture.
If you want to remove the fan control, you'll have to remove/cap any wires that are attached to it. Then cover the empty hole with a blank insert, or half blank cover plate.