How to wire two fans/lights to switches
JeffHurley
| Posted in General Discussion on
I am putting in two ceiling fans with lights, the fans will be on 1 switch and the lights on 2 3-way switches. I have power coming into switch 1 and fan switch. I found plenty of diagrams for a single fan/light, but nothing for fans. What kind of wire do I run between the two fans? Any help will be appreciated
Replies
Depends on the fans you have chosen (or will choose)
If you choose a fan with a wired remote fan speed control, it complicates the installation.
You can wire the fans in parallel, and then in series with the controller, but the controller has to be beefier and rated higher than both fans current needs put together. The speed will likely not match, since there will be variation in the length of wire to the fans and individual fan motor wires and bearings. These fan controllers are meant for and rated for a single fan. you would have to select a wall control with higher rating, and leave the fans on high speed at the fan.
Easiest is to plan to use fan speed control on each fan, (and direction switch), or get fans with remote control.
then you can wire the fans just as if they were lights, (and even run them with lights, or on a dedicated fan only three way switch setup like you plan for the lights.)
You should plan to run NMC between the fans, and to the switches. 2 or 3 conductor with ground, depending on the runs and layout of wires between fan/light boxes and switch boxes.
Thanks, the fans are Hunter fans with LED bulbs, nothing fancy about them. I van wire the lights to the 3 way switches, and then put the fans on a separate switch. I was planning on 3 conductor with ground between the 2 fans; using the red wire to connect to the blue wires on the fan and black wires for the black wire.
That sounds right.
I took a quick look at some Hunter install instructions, and they call the white neutral wire "grounded", and the bare copper ground wire as "grounding". Make sure you understand the difference, hook both up and keep separate from each other.
Finally got everything wired up, but one of the lights will come on when we flip the wall switch, even though the mechanical switch on the fan was turned off the night before. It eventually goes off. Weird