Switch – Rewiring a switch controlled receptacle to a ceiling fan

ceiling-fanreceptaclerewireswitch

I am trying to rewire our bedroom so that a switch that currently turns on/off a receptacle will instead control a ceiling fan and leave the receptacle always hot.

Receptacle: Has 3 cables coming into the box. The outlet has a 1 hot wire and 2 neutrals attached to it. In the box there are 2 hot and 1 neutral wire nutted together.

Switch: Has a 2 conductor cable coming into the box.

I have installed the fan in the ceiling and have run a cable in the attic from the fan to the switch box. At this point I am confused as to complete the wiring of the switch and the receptacle. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Best Answer

Based on your description, it sounds like your wiring is this.

enter image description here

To wire the fan, you will need to remove the switched loop and convert it to a regular wire. So in the outlet box, disconnect the neutrals and hots. Wire cap all 3 neutrals together with a pig tail to reconnect the outlet, do the same for the hots. At the switch, remove the neutral from the switch and wire cap that with the neutral to the light. Then put the hot to the light where the neutral was on the switch. Like so.

enter image description here

I did not add grounds in the picture but they should be wire capped together in each box with a ground wire to the outlet and switch.