Switch – Ceiling fan light flickers whenever fan is turned off

ceiling-fandimmer-switchlight

I recently remodeled my room and added in a ceiling fan. The room only had a dimmer switch installed which I didn't think would be a big deal because it would either be on or off. However, I'm now having a weird issue. When the fan is on and the light is on everything works fine. The different fan speeds are fine and it turns off when it's supposed to.

The issue is when the fan is off and the light is still on it flickers at a very annoying frequency and dims quite a bit. It's becoming a real issue because now it's getting colder and I can't have the light on in my room without the fan!

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

Best Answer

Two gotchas here.

  • You can't put a dimmer on a fan. Fans require a fan speed controller which is a different sort of thing. Even if you never use the dimmer in middle settings, most dimmers are also doing that dimming thing at lowest (nominal off) and highest settings. Since you don't care that much about dimming, change it to a plain switch.
  • You must not put a fan on a plain junction box. It doesn't have the strength. A fan's vibration will tear a normal junction box out of the wall. So change that box to a fan-rated junction box if it isn't one already.