Outdoor ceiling fans should be operated by a switch for ease of use and safety.
Outdoor ceiling fans are helpful in cooling outdoor areas economically. Because of the often high location and function of the outdoor fan, a switch inside or outside the home controls the power to the fan. The wiring for your fan has an optional setup procedure for using a switch. The installation is almost the same as a typical install with some minor changes.
Instructions
1. Shut off the breaker that controls the ceiling fan electrical box.
2. Set the bottom of your fan on the top of your ladder. This brings the wiring harness of the fan close to the ceiling fan box in the ceiling.
3. Strip 1/4 of an inch off the shielding of the cables coming out of the ceiling fan receptacle. You have to strip three wires in total, black, white and red in color. The unshielded copper wire acts as your ground. The red wire is a your switch line and allows you to turn the fan on and off from your switch box.
4. Connect the four wires by matching the colored wires out of the ceiling box to the corresponding colored wires coming out of the fan. Twist the bare wire ends together to form a temporary bond. The black wire represents the neutral line, white represents the hot line, red represents the switch line and the bare wire is the ground line; these colors are universal in housing code.
5. Screw a wire nut to the ends of each set of twisted cables. The wire nuts secure the two cables together and prevent wires from creating a short by touching each other in the fan assembly.
Tags: bare wire, ceiling fans, colored wires, Outdoor ceiling, Outdoor ceiling fans, switch line, wire ends