Just moved in to an older home with fiancé and WAS planning to change out a light fixture with a new ceiling fan. However after turning off light switch and breaker and proceeding to remove light fixture I ran into something I felt was strange and later confirmed was very strange to a novice such as myself.
When I removed the fixture to expose the wires I discovered it was connected to two white wires. Not the single black / white I expected and that was at the switch.
Both black wires were taped up together and not used.
I also got nervous over the fact that despite the switch being off apparently it was still live when I used my tester. (I am going to re-affirm this however as I noticed after the fact that my tester lights up and is audible just by waving it in the air near there. Appears something in the attic is causing it to light up, more to come on that)
Either way things weren't as they should be to a novice and thus I promptly shut the project down. I don't play around. I do however find it odd and would love to hear thoughts on how it works this way and why would it possibly have been wired this way? I thought black was hot and white was neutral so if nothing else it would be the black ones used?
Best Answer
So, the box in the ceiling has two pair coming into it. Two black white pair. One comes from the power source. Think of that one as Line and Neutral. The other one runs to the light switch wherever that is. ( If you open the switch, you should find a black and white on the two screws. )
Therefore, the two black wires are connected and beep your meter because the breaker is still on. Keep them intact. AND the white coming from the switch is connected to the black on the fan. It SHOULD have a bit of black E tape to mark it as a 'switched hot'. The white neutral is connected to the white wire on the fan.
How'my doin' so far?
The new fixture should be wired just like the old fixture. Put the black where the black was, and the white where the white was.
Double check the box is secure enough to the house to hold the weight of the new fixture.