Electrical Question-Ground/Ceiling Fan

electrical

First time here, hopefully first of many.

I have an older home, built in the early 1900s that I just purchased about a year ago. Okay in shape, but a lot of outdated items.

Currently, I am attempting to install ceiling fans into the three bedrooms upstairs, and I’m looking for some guidance/help.

Currently, the only lighting I have in each room is one wall sconce per room.
No light switches, nothing. The switch to turn the sconce on is attached to the sconce.

With it being an older home, there is no ground wire-simply a white and black.

I would like to install a ceiling fan and two switches(one for fan, one for light) into each room.

I have already prepped everything (holes, brackets, etc.) just need help with the wiring.

How do I go about it not being grounded? Is a metal box fine, or do I need a plastic one?

Also I imagine I can tap into what is in the sconce and use this to power the switches and fan? I’m existing black and white to switches, back up to fan? I imagine I would have to splice new wire in.

Forgive me if my vernacular is not the best, I’m just getting my feet wet lol

Thank you guys for all your help!enter image description here

Best Answer

I can't speak to the issue of ground requirements - one of the pros will have to answer that. Note that references below to /2, /3, /4 refer to the number of wires in each cable, excluding ground.

But I can answer the rest:

You will need two cables for each fan. In the old days, you could use a /2 from power (the sconce) to the ceiling and a /3 from the ceiling to the switches. However, due to the requirement for neutral at switches (relatively new requirement), you would need a /4 - which is a more unusual cable - in order to provide neutral. So I would recommend the alternative setup: /2 from power to the switches and /3 from the switches to the fan.

  • If the existing circuit is a 15A circuit then you can use 12 AWG or 14 AWG wire/cable. If the existing circuit is a 20A circuit then you must use 12 AWG wire/cable.
  • In the sconce box (hopefully it is mounted on a proper junction box), you will either find one cable (power to sconce) or two (power to sconce and power going on to another room). You need to connect all hot wires (normally all black) together with a wire nut, including the new cable's black wire. You need to connect all neutral wires (normally all white) together with a wire nut, including the new cable's white wire. If the wires are currently in wire nuts then it may be advisable to replace with newer wire nuts (you can check on the package as to which color wire nuts handle different numbers of wires). If the wires are not in wire nuts - e.g., if there is only one black and one white going to the sconce - then you will need to add some short pieces of matching wire ("pigtails") to connect the sconce since the sconce wires will now instead go to wire nuts. You can get these extra pieces of black & white wire by taking some cable and stripping off the outer insulation.
  • Run the new /2 cable to the switch box.
  • Run a new /3 cable from the switch box up to the fan.
  • In the switch box, connect the black wire together with two black pigtails using a wire nut. Connect each pigtail to one screw on a switch (doesn't matter top or bottom, but wire the switches identically.) Connect the red and black wires to the other switch screws. Connect the two white wires together with a wire nut.
  • In the ceiling fan box, connect the white wire to the fan/light neutral. There may be one neutral but there could be two - they all go together. Connect the black and red wires to the fan & light hot wires. Those wires may be black and red or black and blue - or potentially any colors except white (neutral), gray (neutral), green (ground) or bare wire (ground).
  • Not knowing for sure about the final ground configuration, it would make sense to me (but if Ed or Harper or one of the other experts says otherwise, do what they say!) to connect the round wires of the fan/light and the cable together with a wire nut, and connect the /2 and /3 ground wires together and pigtail them to the switches. The big question is what to do with the ground at the other end (sconce/power source).
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