flip switch off, breaker trips

between a hot and neutral from the same cable we find the supply circuit from the breaker box

so, I am understanding that the whites need to be capped off, and the hot is the hot (black) and the neutral hot is the neutral (pretend its white?)

and I thought I had a pretty good understanding of some electricity until this ceiling fan.

You need to take the hot in the ceiling box with the voltage on it a connect it to the white wire going to the switch box. The black coming back from the switch goes to the fan black and blue wires. The white that was with the hot wire in the ceiling box will connect to the fan white wire. The grounds all connect together and connect to the green on the fan. Does this make sense? Please ask for clarification if not. Be careful.

It does and it doesnt..... first off..... how do will I know which of the white wires goes to the light switch?

Now as far as connecting the wires from what I read this is what I understand.... the hot black and both of the whites( one coming from the switch and the other connecting to the white on the fan) will connect together with the fan white?

and

the black and blue on the fan will connect with the black coming back from the switch?

Please correct me if I got that wrong!

The white that goes to the switch will not read any voltage when you check with your meter between it and the black that is hot. Would it be easier if you called me. Feel free to if you want I trouble shoot questions from my website all the time. If not we will continue on this way. But re-read my instructions. You will not tie the whites together at the ceiling box.

I dont know what website you are talking about...

So, I am going to undo the white wires (they are twisted together) and figure out which one goes to the switch (this is where my problem lies) and once I do that. I will connect the hot black with white switch, then the other white to the white fan. then the neutral black to the black/blue fan

Is that correct?

I guess my thinking was that the previous fan had both whites together and that is what was confusing me as the fan worked, it just didnt have a light kit

Yes, that sounds right. Look at my profile for my website. I think you can just click on my name above the picture of the pipe left of the posts.

ok... so this is embarassing to say at 37, but, My mother is on my phone and is refusing to get off of it.....

so.... I guess the biggest question is..... how do I know which wire is the switch wire?

Between the hot black wire in the ceiling box and only one of the white wires should you get a reading. The white wire that you don't get a reading from should be the one that goes back to the switch box...also it should be the one that is bundled in the same cable with the black wire that had no voltage on it.

I am not sure If i can see enough of it... but ... I will look again to make sure...
and now that I have read what you responded... duh......
sometimes.... I am just downright silly....

ok... I see what you are saying and I am going to get busy fixing it... I will post back when I am done... and thank you kind sir... for all of your help.

ok, so I checked the wiring again... still one hot black one neutral black and two neutral whites, grounds together.... then I turned the breaker and switch off.

I took tthe hot black and the neutral white and put it with the white on the fan. I then took the neutral black and neutral white and put it with the black/blue fan wires........

On the switch the top screw (see word OFF) is black and the bottom is white.

I turned the breaker back on and it tripped
I turned the breaker off, then flipped the switch to on, and the breaker tripped

and I had such high hopes... lol

so, I am going to read back through all of this...........

I think I know what I did wrong... hang on.....

That is why I thought phone would be better. So you can tell me in real time what you see and I could ask better questions. I understand your hesitance at a phone conversation. It's a sad commentary on our society. Keep trying though I may draw a diagram and post it, if I can figure out how...Don

Connect hot black in ceiling box to white in ceiling box going to switch. White in ceiling box that was with the hot black in ceiling box to fan white, then black coming from switch box to fan black and blue.

I will have the phone in a few minutees as she is leaving... so, hang on and I will call that number

OK..... so I won the battle with the ceiling fan along with the smarts of DONMORGAN. he was a huge help... now the Fan turns on and off and the blades spin around and everything... now... If i had only bought the correct light bulb....hmmmmmm



thanks DOn

I'm not responsible for light bulbs. I take it everything works as it should with the switch.

oops, didn't see page 4. congratulations.

:2cents:

donmorgan said:

Connect hot black in ceiling box to white in ceiling box going to switch. White in ceiling box that was with the hot black in ceiling box to fan white, then black coming from switch box to fan black and blue.

Click to expand...

This is a confusing way to put it...but once I deciphered what was meant by it, it helped me a lot. I was having the EXACT same issue. Basically... there are only two possibly ways for the wires to go...it's a bit like a puzzle. One way is right and one way is wrong.

The black wire from one black and white wire pair (in the same protective plastic coating) coming from the ceiling is wired to the other ceiling pair's white. The white that is now by itself in the ceiling (no other free white wire there) goes to the ceiling fan's white wire. The last black wire that is now by itself in the ceiling goes to the ceiling fan's black and blue wires. Grounds are always together and screwed to the box in the ceiling. In my case the two grounds from the ceiling were actually still one wire and screwed into the ceiling box already so I wired the green wire from the fan seperately to the box as well.

If you start by connecting one black ceiling wire (from one black/white pair) to the opposite (black/white pair) white wire, then connect the leftover white wire from the ceiling to the white wire from the fan and the rest of the wires together (excluding the ground wires); so... leftover black ceiling wire to black and blue fan wires it will either work...or it wont. If it doesn't work, you should then disconnect everything (or disconnect wires as you go to make the process less confusing on yourself) and connect the first black ceiling wire to the other white ceiling wire (the one it is has not yet been connected to) and repeat the process above.

Black Ceiling Wire (HOT) => Opposite White Ceiling Wire
Other White Ceiling Wire => White Fan Wire
Other Black Ceiling Wire => Black and Blue Fan Wire

This is NOT a safe way to do it (the whole trial and error thing), however it will work if you have a safe breaker system set up. I got lucky and it was correct on my first try. :

I hope this way of wording it will help someone work their way through the process. If not...hire an electrician like we all should be doing!