Help with wiring during ceiling fan installation

Question

I am trying to install a ceiling fan. Fan has 4 wires sticking out (incl neutral).

The ceiling has 7 wires coming out. 3 are bunched together, another 3 are bunched together while there is one that is separate.

When I hooked up the fan, i connected the two hot wires (fan and light) from the fan unit to one set of 3 ceiling wires together while I connected the white wire from the fan unit to the other set of 3 wires.

and left the single wire coming form ceiling along.

The fan and light works fine EXCEPT that i cannot control the operation from the wall switch and can only turn on/off the fan/light from the unit itself.

What did i do wrong? Does the single wire from the ceiling come into play? how?

Answer 1

Was anything connected to the single black wire before?

It sounds like 1 bunch of wires is black and 1 bunch of wires is white.  These details tend to help.

Did you find the instructions for the fan indicating what the 4 wires are for?

My guess is the instructions will tell you what the black and blue wires are for.

If the single wire is the from the switch you can hook either the light (black?) or the fan(blue?) or both to the single back wire in the ceiling.

Did the direction tell you that green is neutral?  Green should be ground and white should be neutral.

Answer 2

Disconnect the 3 blacks from the fan and connect the fan to the single black. The single black is the switch leg.  If this is still a problem, call a qualified professional electrician to do the work.

Answer 3

Most ceiling fans come with 4 wires one of which is the ground wire. Each wire is a different colour: green, white, black and last being one of three colours (white/black striped, red or blue).

I found this here:

http://www.ceiling-fan-wizard.com

Answer 4

By Code, the Green wires cannot be the "neutrals", they are both Grounding Conductors (probably one for the light, and 1 for the fan).

Splice the neutrals to the neutral from the ceiling; splice each of the switch legs to one of the switch legs from the ceiling, and bond the Grounding Conductors to the metal box. You'll have to figure out which of the spliced groups of conductors in the ceiling will control the light, and which will control the fan (if each conductor "bundle" is a switch leg). If one "bundle is always "hot", splice whichever part of the fixture you are willing to control only by the pull-string switch to that bundle.

Be sure you have a ceiling fan rated box installed before you do any wiring. If you are trying to use a standard 1900 box, it is not rated for use with a ceiling fan. You will have a fan sitting in the middle of your table one day, for sure. Take the time to install the correct box (Reiker - a division of Pass & Seymour - makes a very good retro-fit box for paddle fan installs); you won't have to sit under your fan wondering if it is going to take off on you.