Ceiling Fan Wiring Help Please

[rdgallo]

I have just purchased a Hunter Ceiling fan to replace an old Homestead fan that was installed in my house. I want to install the Hunter remote control reciever in the canopy of the new fan. I am confused on the wiring and would like to get it right without guess work. The old fan was controlled by light switches (two 3way switches). You would flip one of the switches to on and then pull the chain on the fan once for lights and twice for the fan. The fan speed was controlled via a reostat on the fan housing itself. The ceiling outlet box has two black wires wired together (that the old fan black wire wired to) and two white wires ( one was wired to the white wire coming ouit of the old fan and the other white wire was wired to a blue wire coming ouit of the old fan). The new Hunter fan has three wires coming out of it - a black one, a white one, and a black one with white stripe. If I wasn't going to hook in the remote receiver, I believe I could just hook the black wire from the new fan to the two black wires in the outlet of the house and the white wire to the white wire in the outlet box and the black with white stripe wire to the other white wire in the house outlet box. However, the remote receiver installs between the three wires coming out of the fan and the house outlet box, The remote has two wires (one white and one black) that it shows being installed in the existing house outlet box by of couse hooking white with white and black with white. It also has 3 wires that come out of the remote (one black for fan, one white for neutral and one red for lights). I assume that these three wires would hook up black to black on the fan, white to white on the fan and red to black with white stripe on the fan. The only problem that this leaves me is since there are only two wires from the remote receiver to the house outlet box is what do I do with the other white wire in the house outlet box? I know I can't just cap it off or I would no longer be able to control power to this box from two different switches. Can anyone decipher this message and help me some?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.\

[Sparks]

Decipher is correct. Wow. Usually, you would wire the house outlet boxes wires to the input of the remote receiver module which would be mounted inside canopy or on top of support bracket of new fan. The receiver modules wires (output) would then be connected to the fan motor and light (if equipped with light). So you would really only be hooking the house power to the module. The module would then be wired to the fan motor and fan light. Check the directions you receieved with the new fan. If I understand your post, you have 2 white wires hooked together and 2 black wires hooked together. These wires would stay hooked together and would also be connected to the receiver module input. Check the directions carefully as sometimes this varies a bit. As for your 2 whites wires being separate, I'm unclear on this. If you have 120v present when you flip either 3 way switch, you're ok. Make sure you have a hot and a neutral when either switch is flipped, or was the fan wired for constant power and the light switched??? You'll have to answer that yourself. If the fan was wired constant and the light switched, just cap the constant feed and use the switched if you like. Being that the fan has a remote control, it should be fine either way. I hope you own a wiggy or some kind of voltmeter to find out what's what.

[rdgallo]

Sparks, thanks for the response. I was trying to figure out to hook the remote to the house outlet when the house outlet had 3 wires and the remote only had two. I finally realized that I would not be able to use the 3-way switches like normal. So, I figured out which switch when on supplied power to the outlet and then capped off the other 'hot' wire. I will now wire the remote to the white wire and the black hot wire left. I really appreciate you help.

Thanks!

[Sparks]

Ok, but, if the switches are indeed 3 ways, the installation of the fan shouldn't render their operation null and void, the 3 way capability should still work. Maybe they are not truly set up as 3 ways switches. It's hard to tell from here :) But if you're happy with the outcome, great. Just remember to support the fan according to the directions and ground it.

[rdgallo]

Thanks again, Sparks. I think the switches might have worked as three way, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work with the two wire remote. None of the diagrams I viewed on the internet on three way swithces looked like my set up. I finished hooking everything up and it worked fine. As far as grounding anything, there were no ground wires that I saw in the house outlet box. Also, I saw no grounding wires on the old fan I took down that had been up there for over 22 years. I guess since it is working, I won't worry about the ground. Out of sight out of mind, I guess. Again, thanks.

[Sparks]

It's your call. Taking your location into consideration, if you're near Chicago, the whole electrical system may be in conduit (emt) so in that case you would just connect the fans ground wire to the metal box and it would be properly grounded per nec. That's probably why there isn't a ground wire in the box. Albeit, you would still be required to use either an approved grounding screw or a grounding clip, just for future reference.