Some ceiling fan installations, such as those surrounded by glass, are more difficult to perform.
Most ceiling fan manufacturers include directions on wire the unit in the fan's packaging. However, if you wish to install a previously used fan or the instructions were somehow removed from the box or lost, you can still safely wire the fan without going to the trouble of contacting the manufacturer for assistance.
Instructions
1. Turn off the power at the breaker box. Attempt to turn the light on at the location where you will install the fan to make sure the power is off. Turn the light switch off once you've tested it.
2. Assemble the ceiling fan according to the manufacturer's instructions.
3. Remove the existing light fixture to make way for the ceiling fan installation.
4. Remove the screws and carefully lower the light about 6 inches to expose the wiring. Typically, there are three wires. A bare wire or green wire is the ground wire, the white wire is the neutral wire and the black or red wire is the hot wire.
5. Remove the wire nut or electrical tape from one wire at a time. Once you have a wire separated, place a wire nut to cover the exposed wire coming down from the ceiling. This way you never have more than one wire exposed at a a time. Once you have removed all the wires, you can remove the existing light fixture.
6. Check the ceiling mounted electrical box to see if it is strong enough to hold the ceiling fan. You will probably need to reinforce the box in order to carry the heavier weight of the fan. If the attic allows access to the top of the electrical box, you can reinforce it from the ceiling by installing a bracket or 2 by 4 above the box and screwing the box to the reinforcing bracket.
7. Check the wires for the ceiling fan. There will typically be three wires -- a green or bare wire that is the ground, a white wire that is the neutral and a red or black wire that is the hot wire. Check the fan instructions to verify each of the wires.
8. Install the ceiling fan bracket included with the ceiling fan. This piece connects to the ceiling's electrical box. There is usually a temporary hook on the ceiling fan bracket to hang the fan to while you hook up the wires.
9. Start with the green/bare ground wire. Connect the ceiling fan ground wire to the ground wire in the electrical box. Carefully wrap the two bare wires together, then insert the end of the into a wire nut and turn the wire nut a few turns until the wires tighten up. Wrap some electrical tape around the wire nut and the wires to keep everything in place.
10. Move on to the white wires. Connect the white wire to the white wire. Twist a wire nut over the wires and tape them, and then move on to the black wires.
11. Push each of the wires carefully up into the box so that you can continue the fan installation. Make sure that no wires are exposed, except for the ground wire if it is bare wire. Make sure there is a wire nut over every connection. There should be no other bare wires other than the ground wire once you are done -- if the ground wire is green, then there shouldn't be any bare wires when you are done.
12. Finish the fan installation according to the manufacturer's directions.
13. Switch the breaker back on with the wall switch turned off. If the breaker clicks back off, then there is something wrong and you need to recheck your wiring connections. If the breaker stays on, turn on the light switch. The fan should start working. If it does not, then turn the light switch off and check the fan for a pull chain or other switch.
Tags: ground wire, bare wires, white wire, bare wire, light switch, turn light, wire that
