I'm working on a new ceiling fan install. I pulled out the old light fixture (traditional fixture) with three sets of wires coming into the box (three hot, three neutral, and three grounding wires). There is only one light switch, so why are there three sets of wires?
One long hot wire was connected to the hot wire receptor on the fixture, two shorter hot wires were held together with a nut and not connected to the fixture, and the three neutral wires were held together and ran to the neutral receptor.
I tried to copy this after I installed the new fan outlet box and support bar, however, I can't get the power to turn on to the fan. Here are the installation instructions that I followed to a "T".
Any help to solve this problem would be much appreciated. Thank you.
This is how the wires were bunched with the old fixture. The white wires were combined. I think that the long black wire is coming from the box because it is coming in from that direction.
The one on the left is connected to the fan, the one on the right is not.
Here is how I connected the white wires for the fan.
Best Answer
(A partial answer)
One cable brings power from "upstream", either directly from the circuit breaker to the fan, or from the breaker via another fixture.
One cable leads from the fan to the switch. This should be the cable that you connected to the fan. This is what enables the switch on the wall to operate the fan.
The last cable takes hot power from the box to another fixture somewhere. Turn on all the lights in the house, then turn off the breaker that controls the fan. See what else turns off - that's where this other cable leads. (Once you've figured that out, you may want to be sure the label for the breaker accurately describes what it powers so you don't have to figure it out again in the future.)