I've purchased a Hampton Bay ceiling fan with a lamp and I'm trying to connect it to my house wiring.
I can see the following house wires:
- 2 connected (twisted) white wires
- one wire of blue'ish color (maybe purple, I'm not good with colors)
What I've tried:
- I connected the white fan wire to the white twisted pair of house wires.
- All the other fan wires were connected to the blue house wire.
Result: short circuit and a broken switch.
House wires:
Fan wires (2 green, blank, white, blue):
How should I connect my ceiling fan to the house wires that I have?
Best Answer
These fans have one hot wire for powering the fan (usually the black) and another another hot wire powering the light (usu blue). These go to separate pull chain switches in the fan assembly.
The fan and light share a neutral (white). Note that in your house wiring all neutrals will be white, but depending on the age of your house, white may be used for a hot or switched hot so it is not correct to just connect all whites without knowing the function of a given white.
The green is a ground so if you connected the green to either the black or the blue it would short to ground as soon as the switch was turned on with the breaker on. The green should be connected only to the ground of the house wiring.
If you have only one wall switch and so only one hot wire from the house (black), then connect the black and the blue of the fan to the black of the house. Separate pull chain switches allow separate control of fan and light.