Electrical – Ceiling fan & light installation – can’t get wiring right

ceiling-fanelectricalswitch

I recently purchased and installed a Quorum 70443-14 fan with light.
This model has no pull chains, and is operated by an in-wall "remote" that is hard-wired and not removable.

The wall switch (that was included with the fan) looks like this unit: http://img1.wfrcdn.com/docresources/604/11/116905.pdf

The ceiling box has five wires coming out of it, two white, one gray, one black and one green/bare (ground). The black and gray were connected to the black & blue leads from the old pull-chain fan & light I removed. The two white I am not sure, at least one was connected to the old fan white lead, but I'm not sure about the second, it may have come loose when I moved the fan, but it was not capped off. The black and one of the whites appear to be a slightly smaller gauge wire. The gray may just be a really old black.

Attached is a picture of the old mount before I installed the new, but you can see all of the aforementioned wires.
ceiling junction

I connected the two house blacks to the black of the fan unit, and connected the two whites to the white of the fan unit, and of course the ground to the bracket. I used wire caps and tucked carefully into the canopy of the new fan while installing.

In the wall switch box, there are two switches, the left switch I assumed was for the fan but never used as it did not seem to do anything. My wife claims it would work the light, but I had the fan dismantled before realizing I may need to know that. (oops).

The right switch in the wall box controls a separate in-ceiling light in the room and in the hallway below.

For the left switch, there is a bare wire (ground) a white and a gray. Unfortunately the new fan control unit has a green (ground) and two blacks, one says TO FAN and the other says TO POWER.

Here is the way I have wired the switch:
wall switch remote

I have tried two wiring setups in the ceiling junction:

Method 1:
Ceiling gray and black connected to fan black. Both whites to fan white.
This worked at first to turn on the light and fan at a single speed, but became unresponsive to further commands.

Method 2:
Capped off separately the smaller gauge black and white in the ceiling, and put the ceiling gray to fan black, and white to fan white.
Unfortunately, this resulted in no activity at the fan after restoring power and trying the switch.

I am out of ideas at this point.

Attached is a picture of the electrical connection guide in the manufacturer's instructions. The receiver unit in the fan canopy came pre-connected and mounted.
manufacturer's wiring guide

Best Answer

You are not wired the same way as the picture in your instructions. I think the power comes in to the ceiling box, and the switch is a separate cable.

To verify this, disconnect all of the wiring in the ceiling box and at the switch. Turn the breaker on and carefully check for voltage between the black and white wires. When you find the black and white pair (or just the black wire if you are using a voltage tester) that has power, then you can turn the breaker off.

If this test confirms voltage on just one black wire, then connect as follows:

  1. In the ceiling box:
    • Connect the black powered wire to the other black wire in the ceiling box.
    • Identify the white wire that is paired with the black powered wire. It will be in the same cable sheath. Connect that white wire to the white wire on the fan.
    • Connect the remaining white wire (which would be coming from the switch) to the black wire on the fan/controller. Wrap a piece of electrical tape around the white wire about a half inch back from the wirenut. This will signify that the white wire is carrying live current and is not a neutral.
  2. In the switch box:
    • Connect the black wire to the switch wire with the yellow sticker.
    • Connect the white wire to the switch wire with the blue sticker. Also mark this white wire with electrical tape.
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