electricalswitch
I am not expertise as an Electrician here but I wanted to ask anyone here why do I have two switches here and what does that mean ?
Can anyone point me a good website that can I read about it ? I recently put up ceiling fan and had have no clue why I have two and we have them in several rooms.
The red wire is the ungrounded (hot) conductor from one switch, while the black wire is the ungrounded (hot) conductor from the other switch. In the original installation one switch would energize the red wire causing the fan to come on, while the other would energize the black turning on the light.
With the new fixture, both the fan and light functionality are controlled by the remote. Because of this, the fixture only requires a single ungrounded (hot) conductor to operate. These types of fixtures are good for situations where a switch is not present/desired, but may be awkward when a switch is present. As you've noticed, the fixture only operates when the switch is in the on position. The other switch in this situation would do nothing, since nothing is connected to the wire that it energizes.
With this fixture you only require a single ungrounded (hot) conductor, because the remote routes power to either the fan, the light, or both depending on the setting. The additional wire can be capped using a twist-on wire connector, or other approved method.
If you'd like to get the functionality you previously had, you'll likely have to bypass the remote on the fixture. However, this is an atypical installation, and requires special knowledge. This type of installation should only be performed by an experienced DIYer.
The original wiring looked something like this...
The wiring with the remote unit looks something like this...
As you can see in the new wiring, the remote unit controls the current to the fan and light. Because of this, the second switched ungrounded (hot) conductor is not required.
That IS a 4-way switch which means you do have two other 3-ways. The wiring you have can't mean anything else.
A standard 3-way dimmer cannot be placed in this location.
Best Answer
If this is the kind of place a person might ordinarily put a ceiling fan... And if they also fit a ceiling fan-rated box when they built the place... Then most likely they also put the extra apparatus to allow you to switch the ceiling fan and light separately.
That would be /3 (or /4) cable in the walls and a 2-gang switch box for 2 normal switches (so you don't have to use those janky twin switches and can use bulky dimmer, fan speed control or smart switch modules.) And my guess is they gave you two plain switches by default.
That's fairly standard for new builds, they want to let you pick your own fan or chandelier.