Ceiling light in the house has two way wiring. I want to replace this light with a fan with built in light. How can I modify it to have one switch for fan and one for light.
2007-05-10 10:57:28 · 6 answers · asked by Wiser 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
Pigtail the hot wire in the switch box so the one original hot becomes two hots. Put each hot wire on a separate switch, one for the fan, the other for the light. Now pull a 14-2 from the switch box to the fan and tie the neutral and ground wires together in the switch box, the remaining black wire is your switch leg which can either power you fan, or your light. NOTE: you need to replace the light box for a fan box in your ceiling, light boxes are not designed to hold the weight of a fan.
2007-05-10 11:21:40 · answer #1 · answered by math q 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Inside each switch box, you probably have a red, white, and black wire. The red provides a "traveler" that can toggle to hot so that the two switches work in tandem as a 3-way switch. But ultimately, the light probably only has the white and black at the box - the red is only used between the switches.
To operate a fan and light at a single fixture, you will have to get another conducting strand (red) to the box. Don't know if you have easy access to pull additional wire.
Secondly, you will no longer have 3-way switches. Once you switch over to power two separate devices, one wall switch will operate the fan, and the other switch (across the room) will operate the light. This is probably not what you want. The only remedy is to pull five wires to each switch box - two "hot", two "traveler" and one common. Install two 3-way switches into each box. But you still have to pull enough wires to the fixture to operate both fan and light separately (3 wires total)
If you are willing to abandon one of the switch boxes, you could pull the red from the switch box you want to keep up to the fixture. Then install two single-switches in the "good" switch box (the white common wire is shared/connected to both switches)
I think this is why some are suggesting that it is simpler to get a remote control fan than pull all these extra wires.
Convention:
white - neutral
black - hot
red - "traveling hot" for 3-way switch, or spare hot for fan/light.
oh, and don't forget to run a ground wire too.
2007-05-10 13:07:42 · answer #2 · answered by eric.s 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wiring Two Way Light Switch
2016-11-06 23:03:16 · answer #3 · answered by brombach 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will require some additional wiring to do so. You would need to run a cable from the fan receptacle to the box containing the switch to be used. Simpler is to get a fan with separate pull-chain switches for fan and light, and leave the existing wiring alone.
2007-05-10 11:09:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go to Home Depot and by a remote for the fan. They are easy to install. You can sometimes find a package deal that has one reciver and two transmitters, and you coud hang one nexto each switch.
2007-05-10 11:15:34 · answer #5 · answered by bunrockter 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Easiest is to probably buy a fan with a remote
2007-05-10 11:00:52 · answer #6 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋