Electrical – No Room for Fan Wires

Absolutely do not leave the wires alone wrapped in electrical tape. Electrical tape does not have enough longevity to safely protect the exposed leads and can create a hazard in the future.

The blue wire exists to support the future addition of a light. The polite thing to do for your future self or future owner of your home would be to connect the blue and red wires. However, it is not necessary; if you do not want to, you can cap both leads with wire nuts.

Note that it is also legitimate to connect the black on the fan to the red from the ceiling, and the blue on the fan to the black from the ceiling. Assuming you have two switches, that will swap which switch controls the fan and which switch controls the light.

If the existing black-black connection doesn't work, you can try the black-red. If that does work, it would suggest that the switch for the fan has failed, although it could also indicate other wiring problems.

It sounds like whoever installed it, used the neutral as a hot and the ground as a neutral. Likely they wanted to control the fan and light separately, but only had two conductor cable between the switch and fixture.

If you're installing a remote, you'll only need the two conductors.

Without seeing what you have, this is what you might have to do.

• Disconnect the white wire from the switch, and connect it to the grounded (neutral) conductor in the switch box.
• Connect the bare grounding conductors in the switch box togther, making sure to disconnect any bare grounding wires that are attached to white grounding conductors.
• Follow the instructions to install the new fan and remote.
  • in the ceiling box, connect white to white, black to black, and ground to ground.

This will mean one switch does nothing, while the other provides power to the remote. So you can swap out the double switch for a single one if you want.

Warning

This answer is a guess based on past experience, and the limited information you've provided. If you provide more information, we'll be able to provide more accurate answers. If you're unsure about what's going on, don't be afraid to contact an Electrician.