Installing ceiling fan, but no ground wire from ceiling?
Gilchristelectric, I can't believe you said that. The earth has nothing to do with fault clearing, and I would hope you know that. He is right in that if the box is not "grounded" properly, it will do no good to connect the fan ground to it. The ground needs to return to the neutral at the service to trip the circuit breaker on a fault, not to the earth. By the way, Gilchristelectric, did you see my answer to your question to me about Romex ampacity? I put that in an unrelated answer. If not, 334.80 is where it requires the 60 degree column. Edit: Gilchristelectric, I still disagree with the wording "connect the ground to earth." It is (indirectly) connected to earth when connected correctly, but connecting it to earth is not correct. He cannot run an equipment grounding conductor to a ground rod for example. Your answer suggests this is acceptable. I would leave the answer at: if you don't have a ground wire already going to the service properly, get a qualified electrician to hook up the ground correctly. The finer points of proper grounding are not the simplest to understand and not the place for a DIYer. By the way, I think we have similar goals: Correct much of the misinformation given on this site. I wish people that didn't know what they were talking about would skip answering the questions.
Live wire vs neutral- and no grounding wire?
While I definitely recommend you wait until you can get someone over there who knows what's up, I find that most people are going to do it anyway despite good advice, so here are some tips. IF there really only are two black wires (HOW OLD IS THIS HOUSE?), then separate them and make sure they don't touch anything. Do NOT use a multimeter, but get a non-contact AC voltage detector. These are cheap. They are sometimes called "tick tracers" or "neon testers". The Fluke AC1 is my choice, but there are many brands. Then, with the power and switch turned ON, set the tester against the insulation of the wires. Only one of them should cause the tester to light continuously. That will be the hot; the other the neutral. This is assuming there was a working fixture there before this installation. Multimeters can give bad readings on unloaded AC circuits and make poor troubleshooting devices in amateur hands. As to the ground, look carefully. Sometimes, the ground is a bare wire that was tucked in the back and joined to the box, especially hard to see if the box was open when the texture and paint was applied. If indeed the house is OLD, you may well have just two black wires and no ground, especially since you said fuses instead of circuit breakers. If you have no ground wire, do NOT join it with the neutral. If the mounting box is metal, screw it to the box. If not, just leave it alone. It matters which one is hot and which is neutral because one can kill you if you are grounded and touch it, the other is already grounded at the main service entrance. Fixtures with screw-in bulbs will WORK either way, but you want the hot part at the bottom of the screw, not all along the threads on the side. The book "Wiring Simplified" is one of the best I've seen to help a handyman understand how to work with electrical.
Ceiling fan hookup. Three sets of wires coming from ceiling?
First off, you need to make sure you have the breaker turned off. I'm guessing you have done that. What you have is most likely one wire runs from the switch to the ceiling. The other 2 sets of wire are probably just a continuation of the circuit to additional electric (plugs etc). You need to identify which of the 3 wires up there is running to the switch. Those wires will connect to the fan. The other 2 sets will just need to be connected (with wire nuts and placed inside the box). One of those 2 will be hot if you turn the breaker back on and the other will not. The hot one is the power coming in and the other is the power continuing out. My guess is you do not have a voltage tester to help with this. While the breaker is off, check outlets in the room to see if they are hot. If not, they are on that circuit. Using a trial and error method, you can figure it out. There will be one wire that exits the box that is going away (the opposite direction) from the switch. Randomly pick one of the other 2 wires and tie the black to black, white to white and ground to ground with wire nuts. Leave the other one apart (with a separate wire nut on the white and black). Turn the breaker back on and see if the outlets that were off are now working. If so you have identified the 2 wires that will not tie to the fan, and you're ready to wire the fan. If the outlets do not work, you need to switch them to another combination of 2 wires connected until they do work. Once you've identified the switch wire, wiring the fan is easy. You will connect the white to the white, and connect both the blue and black (on the fan) to the black. Connect the ground as well (it'll be green on the fan). Your fan and light both will come on by the switch. You'll have to control the fan by the pull chain. If you wanted them to have separate switches you would need to run a 3-way wire from the switch to the fan. Hope this helps
How do I hook up a ground wire to my new furnace when my house wiring does NOT have a seperate ground wire?
color means nothing if they are backwards. it sounds like you made the metal frame of your carrier hot don't hook up ground to H2O pipe unless it has an earth grounding rod wired to it also. or you may experience a new sensation in shower when the water in drain completes a ckt through you. path will flow through a light bulb then through white wire to water pipe. then complete the journey to earth through your a**. in most electrical panels the white and ground go to the same lug bar. mobile homes have separate lug bars. but always grounded at power pole with same conductor simply pound ground rod. run # 10 awg ground to neutral lug bar and to cold water pipe. you may use whites as neutrals or grounds and splice as such. not up to code though until u run a ground wire from panel to appliance. a breaker should trip if black and white are reversed.
Wiring an outlet with 3 wires?
You will find 3 wires on switched outlets, most likely in a bedroom or living room. The link below shows an example. Typically one of the outlets is switched while the other is hot all the time. The other instance you may find more typical in a kitchen is a split wired multi circuit receptacle. In this case the red and black are feed from different breakers but the neutral is shared. This was common to save wire a few years ago but I believe it is no longer allowed by the National Electric Code. If that was the case and you had a meter you would measure 220V between the red and black and 110V between the black and white or red and white. There is one other possibility. Whoever ran the wires used up some leftover 3 wire cable and either the red or black is not connected at the other end. Usually if this is done the unused wire will either be taped over or have a wire nut over the end. Do either the top or bottom outlet work?
TWO white wires, wound together, and one black?
You don't know who has tampered with or installed the wires. They may be installed wrong and you can be electrocuted. I have found new houses that passed inspection with the wiring polarity reversed. Electrical code calls for white to be the negative or "return wire". Black should be the positive or "supply" wire. So go down to Harbor Freight and purchase a $3 meter that will tell you when the electricity to the fixture is off. Step One, Disconnect the power supply to the light. Trip the circuit breaker or remove the fuse from the panel that supplies power to the light. You may have to turn off several cirucit breakers before you find the one that controls the fan fixure. Step 2. After testing to make sure the power is off. Connect all ground wires (white) to each other. If you separate them, you may cause an open circuit at another plug or light fixture and it will stop working.(the wires run from one fixture to the next similiar to a string of christmas lights) Use a Compression Nut to connect the wires. It looks like a cone and will screw over the ends of the wire. When you are done connecting the wires, no copper wire should be exposed. If copper is exposed, take the compression nut off of the twisted wires and trim them so they will all fit inside the compression nut. When done, gently tug on one of the wires to make sure you have a good connection. If the wire comes loose connect them again. Step 3 Connect the black wire to the black wire using a Compression Nut. Again check to make sure no copper wire is visible outside the compression nut. Gently tug to test the connection. Step 4 If there is a third wire that is bare copper it is called a neutral and should be attached to the fans metal covering to prevent shock in case the fan motor shorts out. Look for a green screw on the fan and attach the neutral to it. Sometimes the fan will have a bare wire attached to it instead of a green screw. If it does, attach the bare wire from the fan to the bare copper wires in the ceiling box. Step 5. neatly fold the wires back into the ceiling box. Put the fan in place, instal screws. Step 6. Turn on power by replacing fuse or resetting the circuit breaker. Step 7. Sit under your fan and enjoy the breeze.
The reason a toaster isn't grounded has nothing to do with the class or category of the appliance.Toasters aren't grounded because it's too easy for someone to start poking around inside the toaster with a fork, trying to get at a stuck piece of toast. If this (not too bright) person makes contact with the heating element then you don't want to provide a fault path from the energized fork, through the person's hand, across his chest, into his other hand, into the grounded metal enclosure of the toaster, and away to the electrical panel.Think about a person holding the toaster in one hand, the fork in the other, and sticking the fork into the toaster. If the metal case of the toaster is grounded then you've completed a fault path through your chest.This is also partly the reason that (at least in the U.S.) all electrical receptacles that serve a kitchen counter top need GFCI protection, regardless of how far away from the kitchen sink they are.EDIT: I just want to reiterate here what I’ve said many times before in other answers. The point of the ground wire (in the USA at least) is not to provide an electrical path to the ground — the dirt below our feet.The point of the ground wire is to provide a very low resistance path back to the main electrical panel. This way if there’s a ground fault then a lot of current will flow over the ground wire, little through you (hopefully), and all that current will trip off the breaker in the main electrical panel. That’s what you really want — to have the breaker trip off.If the ground wire just goes into the actual ground then not enough current will flow to trip the breaker, and you’ll be standing there as part of the fault path with electrical current flowing through you — not a good thing.
Fan & Light switch - 2 black wires, which is which?
We had a ceiling fan w/ light installed where there was previously only a light (but wired for a fan as well). Now it's time to replace the regular light switch with one that will control both the fan & light. Currently the regular switch has 2 black wires going to it and the fan is operating (but light is not - not wired to switch). The red is capped off and the copper is grounded. When replacing with new switch, how do we go from the 2 black wires attached, plus ground, plus red wire capped off to the new unit? New switch specifies the following: Current to New Fan wire to Yellow Ground to Green (this part I get!) Light wire to Red Live wire to Black So, how do I figure out which of my 2 black wires goes to the new black and which goes to red or yellow? Then where does the current red wire go? Currently have: Black to switch Black to switch Red capped off Copper grounded Where do I connect: Light wire=_____________ Fan wire=______________ 1 black wire (specify)=________________ 2nd black wire (specify)=_______________ Copper to ground - got that I do have a circuit tester that has ACV/DCA/DCV/OHM if there's anything I need to do with that to figure out the black wires (but please be very specific). Thank you for your assistance. After 4 trips to the hardware store with no real help, I'm ready to pull my hair out.
If the box in the ceiling has red, black, white, and green (or bare copper), then there is a wall switch which energizes the red wire. Disconnect power at the circuit breaker box and check with a meter or test light that the black wire is hot. Also check the integrity of the white wire and the green/copper. If all is well, you have several choices:If you do not wish to have a light kit on the ceiling fan, but do wish to turn it off and on with the wall switch, connect the black wire from the fan to the red wire in the ceiling box. Put a wire nut on the exposed portion of the black wire in the ceiling box. Connect white to white and green/copper to green/copper.If you want the fan to be controlled by the switch on the wall and the light to be controlled by the pull chain on the fan, connect the red wire to the black wire on the fan and the black wire to the black wire on the light kit. Connect white to white and green/copper to green/copper. This is the most common way fans are wired.If you want the light controlled by the wall switch and the fan controlled by the pull chain, just reverse the connections, connecting the red wire in the ceiling to the black wire in the light kit, and the black wire in the ceiling to the black wire in the fan. Connect white to white and green/copper to green/copper.