Electrician Question Please?

[maverickfhs]

So I have installed a ceiling fan in the past, very straightforward process.

This time there is a blank plate installed and it has 2 black wires, 1 red, 1 ground and 1 white which has a wire twist and it is already connected to a white wire.

Now if I have to install a normal 15A regular switch, how do I connect the wires in the box to the switch?

Appreciate all the help and advise. Thank you.

 

[55hambone]

It sounds like the white (neutral) feeds through the switch box to the fan, one black wire is the 120 volt feed and the remaining black and red are there to allow you to use two switches to control the fan and the light separately. If it is not a two gang box you can find tandem switches for a single gang box. You should have two ground wires, one from the electrical panel and one going to the fan.

 

[Dennywires]

keep white neutrals bunched together... black should be hot and red out to fan if no power on the 2nd black just wire nut it off to be safe

 

[maverickfhs]

It sounds like the white (neutral) feeds through the switch box to the fan, one black wire is the 120 volt feed and the remaining black and red are there to allow you to use two switches to control the fan and the light separately. If it is not a two gang box you can find tandem switches for a single gang box. You should have two ground wires, one from the electrical panel and one going to the fan.

Thank you, so what if I use a regular switch - should I just connect one black, ground and red on the switch - while leave one black alone and all should be good?

 

[Hall]

Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe call an electrician. If I encountered this, I wouldn't "touch" it unless I was replacing like for like. Then I would re-connect everything just like it was (to the new fixture). It might be hard for people to guess what's going on in your case without seeing it.

 

[eljefino]

Is this new construction pre-staged for a fan or an existing house?

What do you have for blank switch plates to go along with this blank ceiling plate?

Is there a chance there's an always-hot in the ceiling so you can run the fan by a pull chain instead of a wall switch? I'm not really up on the things, just trying to think differently.

Modern code requires a neutral in the switch box, maybe that's where the 2nd white is going. This is to allow "smart" switches to reliably operate.

 

[maverickfhs]

Is this new construction pre-staged for a fan or an existing house?

What do you have for blank switch plates to go along with this blank ceiling plate?

Is there a chance there's an always-hot in the ceiling so you can run the fan by a pull chain instead of a wall switch? I'm not really up on the things, just trying to think differently.

Modern code requires a neutral in the switch box, maybe that's where the 2nd white is going. This is to allow "smart" switches to reliably operate.

It is pre-staged for a fan and a dimmer switch and all the wiring is present. Both blank switch plate and ceiling plates have wires and connectors, but not spliced or hooked up.

I checked the ceiling wiring with a multimeter and has no output. There is a dimming functionality in other switches for LED bulbs in the house.

I think both black wires are there to connect light and fan with a dimmer and a switch, similar to this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lutron-Sky...gLqvv8K2_f2fL8WhVKMaAjdpEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[55hambone]

Thank you, so what if I use a regular switch - should I just connect one black, ground and red on the switch - while leave one black alone and all should be good?

If my assessment of your situation is correct, then you need to identify which of the black wires is the hot. That wire would terminate on the switch along with the black or red going to the fan and the ground. But you also need to determine how the fan is wired. Are the black and red going to the fan wired so that one feeds the fan and the other the light? If ,so you would need to use a wire nut to connect those two wires together with a pigtail that is connected to the switch along with the hot wire. Is just one of those wires feeding both the fan and the light? Then just connect that wire to the switch along with the hot wire. You should have two ground wires, one from the electrical panel and the other going to the fan. Tie those together along with pigtail for the switch. And of course, turn off the power and verify that it is off before starting this.

 

[Donald]

The wire going to the fan could have 3 wires plus ground so the light and fan can be contacted separately.

So the cable with just white and black wires is power in and the cable with the black, red and white is for the fan and it's light.

I would get a switch made for fan and light.