Messed up wiring for ceiling fan

dariusld

My house doesn't have ceiling lights I installed a ceiling fan and the wiring isn't right. My attic has a lot of spray in insulation in it, so its hard to follow the wiring. I spliced into a wire and added a junction box that I thought went to my room, but actually goes to the room next to mine. Now the fan doesn't work if the light switch in the other room is on. The lamp,that is plugged into the outlet that the switch controls, is dim when the switch is off, and normal when the switch is on, but the fan doesn't work. Can someone point me in the right direction to fix it properly. I thought just adding another circuit to the run wouldn't do what it's doing. Forgive me for my lack of the correct terminology and thank you in advance.

danpik

Without knowing where the wires run to or come from it will be hard to say what is going on. My inclination is to think you tapped into a switch leg which will, as you found out, not work. You will need to spend some time digging thru the insulation to trace where all the wires go and make up a sketch. Then we posibly can help you figure this out.

k_buz

Take the wire out of the JBox you cut into the existing wire. Then run it to the existing switch box. Be careful to make sure you have a neutral in that switch box. If no neutral, you will have to fish the wire to the fan to a switched receptacle in that room.

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dariusld

I tracked down the wires in the attic. I accidentally tapped into the wire that goes from a switch to an outlet in the next room. The switch has one black and one white going to it. There is no ground to the switch. Is that OK? From there it goes to the junction box I added. Then it goes to an outlet with two black wires on one side and two white wires on the other side and a ground wire. This outlet controls the lamp that is acting funny. The wire in the junction box that runs to the ceiling fan is wired white to white, black to black, and ground to ground. Is there a way to rewire the junction box to just get power to the fan?

Edit: After reading your responses again, I think I see the logic in my mistake.

Jim Port

With only a black and a white connected to a switch you have a switch loop. A switch loop only has a hot and a switched hot. There is no neutral.

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Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.