I was given a old attic fan that I'd like to use to remove drywall dust from work space, I have built a box and have it all set up to use, but I can't seem to get it to turn on. I know it works, seen it before removed. It has 5 wires coming from the motor, 2 white, 1 red, 1 black, 1 green. It also has a old time transformer. The home owner removed the unit, so I don't know how it was wired up before, but know it was wired thru a wall switch. Any one have any ideas?
It's just an old 24"x24" attic fan that was located in the hall way, maybe it's called a whole house fan. The more I look at the wires maybe one of the white ones is yellow. I'm sure it was made in the 60's or before. I think it says "Robbins & Myers" on the fan base.
The only thing for sure is the green is the ground. Is there a name plate or anything on it? on the motor?
I suspect it may have a forward and reverse and some of the wires won't be used for single direction operation.
most likely this is a two speed motor you can confirm this by checking the nameplate and see if it has two numbers listed for RPM.
To my best educated guess without seeing it:
Green IS ground
whites are likely to be neturals and can be connected together.
Red and black are the two speeds. Usually they are hooked to the traveler screws of a backward wired 3way switch to give control. ONLY ONE of these should be hooked up to power at any one time to avoid burning up the motor.
Well what I thought was a transformer is actually a capacitor with 2 wires coming from it, 1 Lt green other is bare. There is no nameplate to be found anywhere on the motor or housing, just the name "Robbins & Myers"
At the price you can get fans these days, I would give up on this!
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