The green arrow indicates where the ceiling drywall meets the top plate of the wall. The blue arrow points to a hole that was drilled into the top plate of the wall so that a cable could be fished down to the switches. Drilled hole in wall top plate view from attic Click to see my blog post about converting a switched outlet to hot for more details and photos about how I did this. I changed the wiring connections so that the outlet was live (Hot) at all times and the switch box now had a LINE hot and a LINE neutral. The additional white and black wires that are connected to the LINE hot and LINE neutral are feeding power to another area of the house. One of the white wires connected to the outlet is the LINE neutral conductor that is part of the same cable as the LINE black wire. The black wire from the switch box is connected onto the outlet. The white wire should have been re-identified with a different color other than white, gray or green. At the switch the white wire is the LINE hot and the black wire is the LOAD. One of the black wires is the LINE or hot wire into the outlet box, but instead of getting terminated directly onto the outlet it is connected to the white wire that goes to the wall switch. In the above photo of an electrical outlet controlled by a wall switch, notice the white wire and two black wires connected together.
An electrical outlet that is controlled by a wall switch This is normal, however the white wire should have been re-identified with a different color because it is not a neutral. When the wiring is checked at the outlet, a white wire is seen connected to the hot black wires. In the above switch box the white wire is usually the hot wire or the LINE and the black wire is the LOAD. The one pictured is a three way but you need the single pole version (just has fewer screws on side) did not find picture of that version, the switch arrangement is identical.CONTROL CEILING FAN AND LIGHT SEPARATELY The old existing wall switch that controlled the switched outlet If you are fine with just turning light and fan off at wall use a stack switch if desired ( was mentioned earlier) below is picture. Your fans should be left on the high setting on the pull chain (for starting) and then started on the max from the wall speed control, then adjusted. If you choose to used any of the wired fan speed controls get ones with distinct speeds rather than the variable (like light dimmers) because the latter tends to creat hum. There is nothing wrong with using 12 for the main runs except it may confuse someone later who does not know that there is 14 downstream. Then use 14/3 for the switch legs for any place you might ever want to put a fan. If it is only going to be lighting I would use a 15amp and do it all on that ckt in 14. Others have given good advice but I would add that if your circuit is on a 20 amp breaker you will need to use 12/3 instead of 14/3. And if you currently have a fan wired with a power comming into ceiling the box and 2 wire switch leg then you can set it up so that the light is controlled by the wall switch and the fan by the pull chain.Ī-holes. At the present time I don't know of a single gang device that controls fan speed, but just a switch for lights.And don't forget to use fan rated boxes.PS. But in many places pulling the chain for fan is no problem.If you use CFL's (or might be forced to in the future) then you don't want a dimmer controlling the lights. In most case you want a wall switch for the lights and having to into a room and find the chain for the light is a PITA.If the location is high or will be obstructed by furniture then you want wall speed control. And only have on/off control for both the lights and speed.Another option is to put continous power on one wire and use the pull chain for the fan and the switch/dimmer for the lights.A couple of points. A switch or dimmer for the lights.You can use duplex switch in a single gang box. A switch or fan speed controller for the fan. That gives you fan speed (but not direction) control and light dimmer.You can use 2 separete devices.
#Wiring a ceiling fan with light and no wall switch full#
They you have full option for whatever you want to do.You can get a single gang fan/light control. I can't remember the brand, but they are a high end line.For convential fan/lights wire them with 3 wire cable. And they allow reversing from the wall switch. There are still a large number of fans without remotes.The only type of remote that I like is one that uses a wall mounted switch that communicates through standard 2 wire wiring.