Ceiling fan/light dimmer?

Question

Hi,

We are doing a little work in my aunts house. She has an old victorian home and in her living room she has a chandelier that she hates so she wants to put in ceiling fans (its the same way in the dining room) My problem is, There is two switches that turn the chandelier off and on (three-way switch i assume.) I was wondering, ceiling fans now have a blue wire now for the light but our one we bought two years ago has a fan and a light but only has a black and white wire and its on our single pole switch and it still works. I was wondering, can you not put it in now since there are not seperate circuits for the fan and light? did they change that? Also, if i wanted to put in a dual fan/light dimmer, how would i do this now, do i have to add an extra wire or a seperate circuit? If there was only one switch and not two i think it would be way less complicated. Please tell me everything u know. Thanks much for the help!!

Answer 1

yes and no

First of all. you have to two different circuits for the fan and the light if you want to have a wall mounted dimmer switch. You can't do this with a 3 way circuit.

The fan will come with instructions on how to wire it so that you can have a separate circuits for the fan and the light.

If you are going to add a circuit, you can use the wiring you all ready have for the fan and the new circuit for the light.

My guess is that you will look at the amount of work involved and decided that the dimmer is not worth it. That is what most people do.

The one you put in in the past should have had one of two color combinations; the first is black/white/green or black/white/green/blue. The green is for the ground. On the fans that have a extra (often blue) wire for the light, it is generally wired with the black when hooked up to a single circuit.

Answer 2

You can buy a remote kit for ceiling fans. It will allow you turn on the light or the fan on by itself. Also will allow you to dim the light, change the speed of the fan. Most home centers sell them in the lighting department. It will come with a controler that you wire at the fan, and a wall switch that will take the place of one of the swiches. If the current light is on a 3way you will have a dead switch on one end. Hoope this helps.