How to Wire a Ceiling Fan

A ceiling fan requires a neutral wire (white), a ground wire (green), a hot wire for the fan (black), and on fans with light kits a hot wire for the lights (blue).  These examples will assume that a lighting kit is going to be used, but if it is not terminations to the blue wire are not required and the circuit is greatly simplified. 

A ceiling fan can basically be wired in one of few different configurations.  Power could be wired directly to the fan, always having the fan hot.  The incoming hot feed would connect to both the black and blue wire.  This would allow control of the fan and lights via the pull strings.

The ceiling fan and light can also be wired through switches.   When a single switch is used to connect to the ceiling fan and light the ceiling fan (black) and light (blue) would both be connected to the switched black wire.  In this configuration turning the switch on would power both the light and ceiling fan.  In order to turn just one off, the pull strings would have to be used.  The problem with this approach, is that when the pull strings have been used to turn the light or ceiling fan off, turning the switch back on will not work until the pull string is pulled again. 

Wiring a Ceiling Fan with One Switch - Click for Close-Up

The ceiling fan and light can also be wired through two switches.  This would generally be two separate switches, one for the fan and one for the light.  This would generally be a 3 conductor w/ground coming from the switch box.  The ceiling fan (black) wire would connect to the switched black wire from the ceiling fan switch, the light wire (blue) would connect to the switched red wire from the light switch and the neutral (white) and ground (bare) would connect to the their associated wires.

Ceiling Fan Wired with Two Switches - Click for Close-Up

Wiring for a Ceiling Fan with a Switched Lght and a Pullstring Fan - Click for a Close Up

  Dimmer switches are often used with ceiling fans.  These are great to use for the lighting switch, however special dimmer switches should be used for the switch that would control the ceiling fan motor.  This type of motor dimmer is usually a three speed switch, with speeds of OFF, LOW, MED, and HI.  Use of regular dimmer switch on a ceiling fan motor will lead to overheating of the ceiling fan motor windings, and premature failure of the ceiling fan. 

If the ceiling fan is to controlled by a remote control, the incoming hot feed would connect to the power terminal on the remote module along with the fans black and blue wires.  Some modules will also require the neutral to be connected to the remote module.  When wiring a ceiling fan for use with a remote control, wire should not go through a switch, or the remote will be disabled everytime that the ceiling fan switch is turned off.

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