Recently I turned the light switch and my ceiling fan/ light flickered a few times and then turned on. The next time I turned it on there was nothing so I tried the ceiling fan itself and it came on but no light. I shut it off and tried it again and no fan no light. Is this dangerous? Could there be a fire? I think I might just need a new light/ceiling fan. Please help.
Electrical – the ceiling fan and light do not work
electrical
Related Solutions
This was the solution that worked.
SWITCH ---------> OUTLET
Yellow ------------> Black
Red---------------> Red
Black ------------> White
The light and the fan are on different wall switches. If these are on different legs (180 deg out of phase), then the net current in a common neutral in the fan will be the difference in the currents in the two hots.
IIRC when the light kit is installed on the fan there is a wire nut splice of the neutral of the light to a common neutral (whites), and of course there is a splice to the hot of the light (blues).
Suppose the fan and light have a common neutral in the fan and there is significant resistance in the neutral wire or in the splices where the light and fan neutrals join the common neutral in the light fixture or where the common neutral in the fan shroud connects to the neutral of the house wiring. When both the light and the fan are on the voltage at the fan motor and the light sockets is higher than when only one is on.
Easiest way to test this explanation is to remove all the bulbs but one from the light fixture. With the light off turn on the fan and let it come to constant speed, then turn on the light. The fan should speed up much less when all the bulbs were in their sockets.
If you can reach both of the wall switches with voltmeter leads, test the voltage across the two.hots. Zero volts indicates that the two hots are on the same leg and this explanation is wrong. 240 V means they are on different legs and this explanation is possibly true.
The remedy would be to redo the splices where the neutral come together. If the neutral wire itself is at fault, then the wire is damaged or you are using higher power bulbs (high power incandescents) than the fixture is rated for.
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Best Answer
When you have a fan/light combo and the lights are flickering or not turning on it generally means you have a problem within the fixture itself. The only thing you can really do is to check the box below the fan and see if any connections there are damaged or loose. Then do the same for the junction box above the fan. If you cannot find anything wrong with the wiring, then it is probably the fixture itself that is going bad. Because repair is usually much more expensive than replacement, I would recommend replacing the entire fixture.
Hope this helps.