Old ceiling fan to install in older house. Crazy wiring. Crazed Husband.?

Question

51 year old brick rancher. Used Hunter ceiling fan w/ lights.

Sweet husband removed ceiling light in order to install fan.

NOW WE HAVE....

4 (that's right 4!) black wires dangling from the hole where the old ceiling fixture used to be. 2 white wires. and NONE of the ceiling lights work in the back part of the house.

Could the ceiling lights be wired in a series like old Christmas lights???

My poor hubbie can't remember what wire went where. He already knows he should have label them and is beating himself up over that.

HELP!!! I'm so tired of looking for things in the dark.

Answer 1

you would need to call in an electrician.......to be sure.

Answer 2

I would use the diagram for a 3 way switch, it sounds like you have two 3way switches. like you would find at the top and bottom of a stair case, I am not an electrician, I know someone had this problem and fixed it but never could say how. Use common sense, wear some rubber coated garden gloves, the new kind, grippers, use a static tester to be sure there is no power,

Answer 3

Wait a minute, hold on there. Not exactly like old Christmas lights. But in what is known by some as daisy chaining. What that means is that the voltage is carried to the next fixture down the line, by connecting black to black and white to white with a pigtail of of each to the light. BIG BUT! You must have had a switch to turn the light on and off. Or was it on a pull chain? Normally in the light fixture box, you will have a black and white wire coming in. That's the feed. Then you would have a black and white leaving the fixture box. That feeds the next box down the line. And, finally, the two wires that go down to the switch, if there is one.

The former electrician could have colored those two wires BLACK, (by code). That would account for you having FOUR BLACK and TWO WHITES in the ceiling box.

So, here's the way to connect them. WHITE to WHITE from the in and out cables, BLACK to BLACK from the in and out cables Now, all other lights down the line should work.

Now you need to send the voltage down to the switch and back up. You should have two black wires in one cable left to connect, so, connect one of those black wires to the other two black wires. Put a short WHITE pigtail, (short piece of wire) to the two white wires. Connect the fan white to that white and the fan black to the remaining black wire from the switch. DONE!

And then there was light!

Answer 4

Tell 'husband' not to panic.

As an electricians daughter, you know that those

black & white wires run in pairs.

Look into the box and match up and tag all the pairs

you see so you can figure this out.

(There will be two more white wires tied together in

that box for a total of at least four pairs.)

One pair of the wires will be incoming power and

neutral. (Find these FIRST by isolating all the loose

wires, turning on the power, and CAREFULLY using

a test lamp. - Please don't get hurt.)

One pair will be wiring to & from the wall switch.

Any other pairs will be either power out to the other

lights in the "back of the house", or switched power

to other lights in the same room, (if any).

In general, all the whites except the one from the wall

switch can be tied together.

Isolate the pair going to the switch, they're special,

Mark the white of this pair so you'll know it's not a neutral.

By trial and error, (connecting power with light

switches on) find the blacks that are 'power out to

the other rooms, and tie them together with the

'power in' black. (Now you've only got one problem).

That fan should be installed only on a specially

reinforced 'fan hanger box'. (The vibration and torque

applied by the fan has been known to work standard

ceiling boxes loose from their fastenings with bad results.)

As the fan probably requires separate wires for 'fan`

and 'light' from the wall switch, (which you don't have),

I don't recommend installing it.

For whatever you install at that box, take power from the

group of black wires to the wall switch, (which you

have now found by the process of elimination), and

connect the wire coming back from the switch to the

black wire of your fixture.

The white wire from your fixture ties to the group of whites.

Answer 5

It sounds like you have shorted your fuses out.Have you checked your fuses?The other problem is,if there are black wires ,the wiring is old and needs to be replaced.You really do need an electrician on this one.otherwise you might get a fire in the roof.It's not worth tying to do it yourself.

Answer 6

My wife and I have bought an old 50s house which sounds like you have something very similar, if not exact, to our electrical. I was wondering, you may have an electrical relay system, such as our house..

How to tell if you have an electrical relay system from the 50s and 60s? Your light switches look like buttons and a click sound can be heard somewhere below your house or in your attic every time you turn on or off your light(s).

FIRST TURN **ALL**  ELECTRICITY OFF at the circuit breaker. I learned that the hard way by crossing the black and white wires- yes I was electrocuted  <dunce|:-O



Second, if  you DO have an electrical relay system, you'll need to ensure ALL of the black wires are connected together and the two white wires are connected together. Then all you have to do is know that all black wires (universally) are positive and white are negative. Connect the positive wires (I'm assuming they're between VERY thick 8-16gauge wires, as with most 50s and 60s electrical & which are fun to do) to the positive wire(s) on the fan and the white wires to the negative wire(s) on the fan.

Here's why your lights do not work (if it is a relay system) :-)

*******With all old house electrical  relay systems, you must ensure that the ***white & black wire are not touching constantly***. ie: if a switch/light button is stuck or white and black wires are crossed, it will prevent ALL electrical in the house from working! OR in your situation, the black wires are NOT touching each other, as well as the white wires, which IS preventing your lights from functioning properly. Make sure the blacks are ALWAYS connected with blacks and white wires with whites. Never cross them or else your relay switches may get permanently stuck!  *******

Older houses are not like newer houses where the electrical current is a constant between the light switch and the light/accessory itself, in EXCEPTION to most of the electrical outlets in the house. The electrical current is constant *to* the relay system, but not constant to the electrical switches/light switches. The individual lightswitches (light buttons in this case) send a signal to the relay system by a slight amount of electricity, in which triggers the relays to open, or close, the electrical current to your lights. So, in essence, your electrical current is NOT running from your switches but direct from the relay. So this is how it goes... Electricity from the telephone pole goes to the electrical meter, to your circuit breaker, to your relay system, then is distributed to your lights and sometimes electrical plugs. Sorry for rambling, but this is the necessary info to know if you have an old house with old electrical.

This also means you cannot install new light switches that use todays standards. Which is a bummer :-(.

I, too, have recently installed ceiling fans in our old house and I'm so glad I did before it got hot!  I hope this helps you and your hubby out! :-)

Answer 7

Take a picture to show us.