[weekenddiyer]

I took down a ceiling fan to paint the ceiling and will be replacing it with a standard light, so now I have the extra BLUE wire that is for the fan. Do I just cap it off or do I need to connect it to the new light? This is also on a 3-way switch. Thank you in advance.

 

[Kevin_Essiambre]

The blue wire is on the ceiling fan?

Does the fan have a light on it? If there's no light and you're not installing a light kit, there's no need to hook it up.

If there's a light or you're installing a light kit, you'll need to hook the blue wire up. Usually it will be connected to the same wire as the black wire.

This information should be in the manual for the fan somewhere.

 

[weekenddiyer]

Thank you for your prompt response. The old ceiling fan had a light and a fan in one unit, so it was my understanding that the blue wire controlled the fan only. So you are saying to connect the blue wire and black wire from the ceiling to the black wire in the new light?

 

[Joeywhat]

Shouldn't be any blue wires in the ceiling, just connected to the fan.

 

[weekenddiyer]

I get it now - I'm a bonehead. I see that the wire coming out of the ceiling is actually black. Seeing it connected to the blue wire on the fan threw me off. So, now that extra BLACK wire coming from the ceiling just needs to combine with the other black wire when connecting the new light?

 

[Kevin_Essiambre]

So how many wires and what colors are in the ceiling?

And how many wires and what colors are on the new fan?

 

[weekenddiyer]

There are 3 black and 3 white wires coming out of the ceiling - it is on a 3 way switch with another light down the hall. The new light will not have a fan - it will be just a light

 

[Joeywhat]

How was everything connected to the fan?

 

[weekenddiyer]

one of the black wires from the ceiling was connected to the blue wire of the fan and the other two black wires from the ceiling were twisted together and connected to the black wire of the fan. All 3 white wires from the ceiling were twisted together and connected to the white wire of the fan

 

[Missouri Bound]

As Joeywhat is suggesting, wire the light the same way the fan was wired.
You should have only had to disconnect two wires to remove the fan...use those.
Black to black, white to white.

 

[Kevin_Essiambre]

one of the black wires from the ceiling was connected to the blue wire of the fan and the other two black wires from the ceiling were twisted together and connected to the black wire of the fan. All 3 white wires from the ceiling were twisted together and connected to the white wire of the fan

So connect your new light to the wire that the blue was connected to. The blue wire on the fan would have been the light, so this is the wire that should be connected to the switches.

White goes to white.

The wires that were connected to black, they will just get capped off.

After all this, the light should work when using the 3 way switches.

 

[seharper]

Golly, it sounds like the way they wired it, they are switching neutral.

Since a 3-way is involved, and there aren't any /3 cables coming through here, then either a) the switch group supplies power, or b) the switch group is a spur switch loop.

a) (switch group being power source) doesn't sound right because why have 2 more cables going off other directions? You don't have 2 other lights under this same control. So that leaves b).

What makes the most sense is that the 3 cables are the following:

- supply from panel
- onward power going to other outlets
- switch loop.


The first 2 cables' blacks are always-hot (note the fan is connected to this).
The first 2 cables' whites are actual neutral (note the fan is NOT connected to this).
The third cable is the switch loop, black and white are connected or not.

So power goes from always-hot -> to the fan -> to the switch group on black -> back to neutral on white.

 

[Missouri Bound]

OK. Let's start over.

How many wires did you have to disconnect in order to take down the fan?
Are there two switches, one for the fan and one for the light?
You mentioned 3-way switches. Did they control just the light, just the fan or both?
Did you have a fan control on the wall or did you have to use a pull chain?

Unless you had one switch for the fan and one switch for the light (on the fan) you should only have 2 wires to contend with....a black and a white.

Your description seem to say that you had a black wire connected to the black wire of the fan, another black wire connected to a blue fan wire and a third white wire connected to the fans white wire.
Is that correct?

 

[Old Thomas]

Ok, one black from the ceiling to the blue (light), two blacks from the ceiling to the black (fan). 3 whites from the ceiling to the fan neutral. It appears that the light was switched but the fan was live and controlled by a pull chain, and the live fan wires fed through to something else (maybe to the switch). Is that correct, that there was a light switch but not a fan switch? If so, connect all the whites together. Connect the single black to the new light. Leave the other 2 blacks wire nutted together in the box.
I can’t think of another scenario for what you described.

 

[weekenddiyer]

Missouri Bound's summary of the setup is correct. I also tried Old Thomas's suggestion and it did not work. I connected all of the white wires together (including the white wire from the new light) and the light stayed on regardless if the switch was on or off. Like power is just constantly flowing.

 

[surferdude2]

I have a problem with how that must have been originally wired. Since you say it was switched by a 3-way switch, then one of the cables must be connected to the light that the 3-way switch controls. That means the new light you are installing should connect to that same cable pair. Since you are removing the fan and replacing with only a light, any wiring that connected to the fan can be left nutted together after you remove the fan wire. That means that there is a home run feeding that ceiling box and it feeds through to some other load further downstream.

That's all as how @seharper described it earlier and likely is the way it was.

I have some reservations about having all those neutrals nutted together since it isn't necessary to commingle the 3-way switched neutral with the feed through neutral and risk paralleling neutrals from possibly improperly phased sources. Lets hope the electrician who did it originally got the 3-way switched power and and the feed through power from the same place. I'd consider isolating it just in case it's a code violating parallel.

 

[weekenddiyer]

Here is a pic of the wires coming out of the ceiling. I haven't had any luck with the troubleshooting.

 

[Missouri Bound]

I hate to pee in your cornflakes but why did you take apart more wires than necessary to remove the fan?

 

[weekenddiyer]

I didn't take any wires apart. I removed a fan/light and installing a simple light. I disconnected the blue wire and everything else was exactly as you see it. There is another light down the hall on the same switch which is currently on, even though this specific light is not connected.

 

[Nickd83]

Couldn't view the attachment, but when you had the fan up, to turn the fan on, did you use a switch or the pull cord? I think the two black wires tied to the black from the fan were always hot, and the light was remotely switched.