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paul

09:14PM | 05/29/12
Member Since: 05/29/12
1 lifetime posts
Bvelectrical
I am a complete amateur when it comes to wiring, but am trying to learn to try to do things myself to avoid having to hire an electrician.

I bought an updated ceiling fan to replace the ceiling fan that was installed by the builders 10 years ago. The old fan was controlled by a 3-button wall switch with these buttons: Fan, For/Rev, and Light (and On/Off that controlled everything).

I removed the old fan and saw that there were 4 wires on the fan: black, white, blue, and green. In the ceiling there were 4 wires too: black, white, brown, and copper. They were attached as follows: black-black, white-white, brown-blue, copper-green.

When I put the new fan up, the instructions said that I should connect black-black+blue (black was fan hot, blue was light hot). At first I tried black-black and brown-blue like it was before, but only the fan would turn on, not the light. So I switched it to how the manual said, and both fan and lights work.

However, the whole unit (fan and lights) turn on when I hit the on/off switch on the wall, and the 3 buttons do nothing. I hear a slight "whir" in the fan when I do press the buttons, but nothing else happens. The pull strings work for on/off, but as it is on a vaulted ceiling, that really isn't an option for normal use in case we just want the lights or just want the fan on.

Did I buy the wrong type of ceiling fan that isn't compatible with the wall switch? Is there a different type of switch I can install in the wall to control the fan/light separately? If not, is there anything I can do to modify the fan so that it works with the switch?

Thanks for the help in advance!

LarryG

05:26PM | 05/30/12
Member Since: 07/22/04
491 lifetime posts
Connect it back up the way you had it to begin with(brown to blue). It should work. There's no reason why it shouldn't after you set the pull chains for the light to be on.


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