Ceiling Fan Wiring

I would like to put a wall switch on my living room ceiling fan, but so far, after taking the covers off of all the junction boxes for the living room/bathroom wall plugs and overhead lights, I cannot find the cable that
goes to the ceiling fan.

Is it possible that the wire to the ceiling fan could be wired into the breaker for the living room/bathroom circuits, inside of the breaker box, and not through any of the junction boxes on the walls of the living room or bathroom?

You need to open the ceiling box above the fan, and post a photo so we can see what's there.

If the fan wiring was done with the intension of turning it on and off at the ceiling with the pull chain, then you would be correct there would be no reason to run that wire thru any junction box. It could be run straight from the panel or it could branch off from another circuit. It sounds like you have investigated all the points it could have branched off. When you shut off the breaker that controls the fan if other stuff goes off then it is branched off at some point and by code that point has to be accessible. It could be in the basement or attic etc.


As mentioned above photos would help.

Thanks for the replies. I know what the situation is with the box in the ceiling, because when my old ceiling fan wore out, I was very surrprised to find that there was no box at all containing the wiring, and that the 3 wire cable was just pulled through a hole in the ceiling.

I told a retired friend who was a retired professional electrician, about this situation, and he did not seem bothered by the fact that the cable to the ceiling and its connections were not contained in a grounded junction box, saying a box was not necessary, although he did install a box for me when I got a new ceiling fan.

So, there is no additional wiring in the ceiling fan junction box.

So far, I have checked the boxes in the entrance hall, the first near the laundry room. It has three switches in it, with one cable feeding switches to the entrance hall light, two wall plugs, a wall plug for the washing machine in the laundry room, and one ceiling light in the laundry room, plus one cable going to a light in the kitchen, and one wall light in the living room.

I then investigated a wall plug under the breaker box, and it had one cable feeding it, apparently from the breaker box, and one cable, out of the plug, feeding a box in the bathroom, with three switches on it, one to the ceiling exhaust fan and light, and one switch to a panel of four lights above the bathroom mirror. Going out of this box, to a single box on the wall to the right of the bathroom sink, is a wire to an outlet protected with switches on it to prevent any accidents from appliancdes plugged into it such as a hair dryer possibly falling into the water There are no other wires into and/or out of this box with the single two plug outlet.

One thing that bothered me, about both of the boxes, in the living room, and the bathroom, is that the hot wires in both locations
had wire stripped off of them, and a single wire also with wire stripped off of it, going to a light switch, was taped against it with no wire nut to hold the two wires together, and the slighest jarrng to these two wires, would cause the lights in the living room, kitchen and bathroom to go out. And, it was the same with that type of connection in the living room box the light switches and connections to the wall plugs are in.

It is complicated, and I might draw a diagram showing all of this, and will post it when I learn how to do so.

Thanks again for the replies, everybody.

With the fan operating start shutting off the breakers until you find the one that controls the fan, then find which other things, if any, are off, and there you will find the connections for power to the fan.