Ceiling fan install

Ok. So I am no electrical wizard by any means, but I have done many ceiling fan/light fixture installs in our homes.

And today I got around to installing the boys ceiling fans. 1st one went just fine. No issues. 2nd one I finish everything, restore power to his room with switch in down/off position. I get back up to his room after flipping breaker on and see his fan spinning? How is that possible? Go back down to basement and the breaker is tripped. For fun I flip it back on and it instapops off again.

I go up and start to isolate by removing just the lights. Restore breaker and come up stairs to find switch in off position and blades spinning. At this point I figure I must have been spacing out and not tied the blue wire to the other hot wires. Well, Idisassemble the whole fan (annoying) and my wiring is correct...

Mind you I didn't pay special attention to the old fixtures wiring I just undid it all fast. Is it possible they had some weird wiring Ishould have noted?

Any help is appreciated.

 

Why does it look like there are two black wires coming from the house wiring (Romex) on the top? Am I seeing that wrong? Is there more than one switch in the room? If so, one switch is meant to turn on the light and one switch is meant to turn on the fan, so they need to be hooked up separately.

 

Only 1 switch in the bedroom. There is white,black, ground passing thru. It seems the light fixture simply tapped into it. Does that make sense?

I just can't believe I have an issue. It must have been weird funky....lesson learned

 

Looks like you may have two ckts running through one box. Are both hots dead when you kill the breaker? Most ceiling fans are 3 wire. Two hots and one neutral - thing is you would normally have two switches - one for each hot.


Get your tester out and see what is what starting at the switch. Figure out what is coming from the panel then connect. If only one switch in the room you will have to cap one hot from the switch and use the chains to turn on/off what you want.

Sounds to me like they tried to wire it for two switches but only gave you one.

 

I should add, all that was there previously was a light fixture. And all the wires were wire nut together when I took old fixture down, but I didn't pay attention to them so I was questioning if they had something wired in a weird way.

We were at a birthday party last night, but I am gonna dig into this after breakfast now.

 

What hot wire is the line/load? Did you change the switch?.... Is the fixture powered at the light or from the switch? Pic of the switch wires...... single romex or (black and neutral on a switch or tied neutrals with line/load to switch)?

 

My bad. Forgot this was posted in 2 spots. Issue resolved. I killed power and tested/toned out all cables. There was a hot black wire up at light so I tied that to white towards the switch and then took the black from switch to rest of blacks at ceiling fan. Works perfect.

Thank you for the help tho!

 

Sorry, but the neutral is for the circuit. You don't need a neutral on the switch. The switch only breaks the hot leg. Now you have a hot neutral (white wire). Yes it works but is a potential safety issue for an unsuspecting individual.