How to Install a Ceiling Fan | This Old House 

HAHA truth

Ha! Or the light flickers on high😂

The power to the fan is constantly on, controlled by the breaker in the basement. The fan’s hot wire is then connected directly to this hot wire.He then paralled another hot wire from these joined hot wires to the light switch below before coming up again and connect to the lamp’s hotwire. This way the lamp can be operated by the light switch while the fan can be turned on/off by the pull cable. Not a very elegant solution but thats how its is fitted.

Instead of the power coming to the switch and feeding the light via a switch leg, it's wired as a switch loop with power coming into the light

@sanesociety yeah, but this isn't up to code anymore cause there's no neutral in the switch box.

That’s what I just said too

@@cobaltpica whatever you just said needs a video to match..

Jjjhjewww

Trilliante So many countries and accents.. I don't notice unusual sentences anymore. As long as they make sense then it's good.

Trilliante to me a screwgun is for either drywall or decking with a sliver nosecone but alot of older folks will call it a screwgun

I took stage crew class when I was in high school, and the teacher called the cordless drills "screw guns."

Trilliant

Lololol

Both

One set is the feed . The other set set is a switch leg...

⁠@@johnnybussart4721the fan only has one white. So do I connect the blue for the light fixture to the switch leg, the hot black for the fan to the feed and then all three whites together?

Tomaserin Larocque too noisy

geniuses...you're welcome.

​@@westsideken Nothing ruins an insult like bad grammar.

Its B/X armored cable with old cloth coated wire, the ground is the armored cable itself through the electrical system, when metal is connected to metal without any breaks the ground is from the panel, so that is one less wire you have to worry about, very common in older homes with cloth wire. If you wanted to have two switches then you would have to pull another cable up to the fan or pull the one out and put 14/3 armored cable, but this video doesn’t show if there is attic access and he got lucky by running into a joist because we hardly ever do. There are a few ways to use that fan with one switch operating it. You can do a remote control which gives independent operation of both the fan and light but the switch has to remain on in order for the remote control to work unless it’s a in wall remote transmitter and the receiver is in the canopy. That would be the best way around having to pull additional wires up to the fan box. We also wire the fan direct hot all the time and is operated by the pull chain only and the switch would be for the light only, most people don’t care for that. Then there is modern technology that we simply use smart bulbs in the light kit and that is normally operated from the Alexa or Eco dot or Google home or your phone, the switch on the wall can then be changed to a fan control to change the speed of the fan. We have done them all and most people opt for the in wall remote that is LED compatible to dim the dimmable LED lights and the fan is operated from the same in wall transmitter. It’s simply wired in place of the existing switch with full function of the fan/light but the receiver needs to be wired that slips into the slot between the fan down rod between the bracket, once that’s wired up all that gets tucked into the canopy and then you have full function of the fan/light without losing a remote somewhere in the room or losing it. The transmitter and receiver both have dip switches that are 1234 numbered, the dip switches need to match each other from the in wall transmitter and the receiver or it will not work, and if there are other fans in the house the dip switches should be changed in sequence so it doesn’t interfere with any other fans that have remote function.

I did

Jared, probably an old light switch arcing.

ike fun, calm down.

Jared S Yes! I DID!

Jared S It's probably the Landmark III,

yeah...this. he talks about the BX being ground but then as he's connecting, i see a ground wire coming from the box. hmmmm

Put in the screw hole

All metal boxes have a hole that will accept a 10-32 ground screw. He installed this type of screw to the box and a short piece of wire to attach to the fan wiring

Roger Spence what assistance do you need? Willing to comment with help

I am an old lady. I have installed several ceiling fans. I am installing a fan tomorrow! I waited 3 months for my husband & son to do it. I had shoulder surgery a couple of months ago, that's why I didn't do it sooner. It's nice to have help, but not necessary. You can do this project easily. Make sure you have a good, heavy duty brace between the joists to hold your fan an keep it from vibrating. Good luck!

Y7p 2, ctn. 4 4

I see

All ceiling fan installers have to be over 7 feet so the don't need a ladder.

Bill Brasky

anyone?

No

Sorry for being 4 months late….. I’m still learning everyday as a apprentice, but I would guess the two blacks primarily serve as your power going back to the panel and the other being your “switch leg”. The white is simply just a neutral. For connecting your wires, just match the colors up with what is existing. More than likely you are going to have a red or a blue wire coming out of the fan housing. Connect that to the black. As far as the ground goes, I’m not sure. I know at one time many fixtures were installed without grounding but that has been ruled incorrect in current times.

Your house has what you call Knob & Tube wiring, so you get a wire tester pen to see which wire is neutral and which wire is hot, and if you put it on the wire, and if the pen doesn't beep, that means the wire is neutral, and if the pen does beep, the wire is hot.

Wasn't that type outlawed? I Homeowners class said if you ever see that wiring, GTFO out an never turn back

Then you run new wiring. Just hire an electrician since you re asking this kind of questions.

Did you figure it out?

One set comes from the panel hot and neutral. The neutral goes to the fixture. The hot gets spliced to one of the other wires in the other BX cable which goes down to the switch and the second wire is the switched leg.

JOSE MURILLO judging by the wire quality..id say the house was built in the 30s-40s. Scary looking compared to more recent electrical wiring installs.

@@postrockforthemind128 I think that house was built in the 1920s.

That my problem 2

Same reason I'm here. I removed my light fixture and there are only 2 wire

One of them used to be white and turned black. Use an electrical tester to find hot and neutral.

That's bc it is your fan

Call an electrician. Have you tried hooking both black and blue to the black?

Call an electrician. You will need to lay new electrical cable or if don't want/can't do this (house made of bricks/hollow blocks) you can use one of this "wireless power switchs".

Connect both the black & the blue wires from the fan to the black (feed) that's already in the ceiling .. next connect your white wires together .. make sure your light switch is off before messing with the wires though

@Jamie. Go to Home Depot and purchase a Hampton Bay Universal 3-Speed ceiling fan remote control, About 30 bucks. Easy to install. Then you can operate the fan motor and the light separate from each other. This beats fishing another wire down the wall and adding a switch.

Techmatt167 maybe that’s why the video cut short because the ceiling fan blades broke lose and broke the camera.

That light is an insult to fans.

I loved that light.

A drill is what you probably call a drill bit.

Lololol it's true, sh*t is weird af in America

A drill is what you probably call a drill bit.

potato head I think one pair of wires goes to the switch on the wall. The other pair is neutral + live and ground is the metal sheathing where the wires come out from. You need to have at least 2 wires to make an electric circuit. If you really have only 1 then you need to run more wires. Have a good look/feel in the ceiling/wall hole to find the second wire. With power off of course.

If you had a previously functioning light or fan installed up there it has to be another wire up there, go look again, its impossible for it to have previously worked without it

no need to. Video is about hanging a fan. Or am i missing something

THEY'RE TINNED

Melkiades Maton There is no first and last in an electric circuit. If there is no completed circuit then nothing in the 'circuit' has power (amps) running through it. The switch always needs to have voltage on it in any case to be able to switch on.

Those thin-profiled pancake boxes typically sit under a ceiling joist. The knockouts sit on either side so you can run your wire through whichever side has more room. At least this has been my experience on a few jobs here recently.

no

What's the problem calling it a screw gun? Isn't that what it is. What do you call it?