parangles wrote:
Thanks Rich


Ah, I don't read well :-). Or I don't read carefully.

Maybe my bad English (g)

Obviously you already identified which breaker feeds the fan. It would
tell you if the outlet in the bathroom is on the same circuit as the fan.

Bathroom is on a different circuit from fan
What is above the ceiling? An attic? Trying to think where they might
have tapped off power for the light switch.

Not going up there ! Too old !
Are there more than one set of wires in the ceiling? What I might
expect is to have a pair of wires bringing power to the light/fan box.
Then a pair of wires running to the light switch.


The wall switch box has two wires coming up from below
and they go up, out the top of the box .
ie visualise two wires passing through the box.
The light switch is connected to (tapped into) one leg , of one of
these wires,
and the other side of the switch is connected to a wire coming
down into the box from above
The only switch for the fan is on the fan itself.
(Google needs to make it possible to post photos here)



OK, That is a clear picture. The way I would see it is that the wire
that passes through the box is the fan. So your power is coming from
below. Basement or from someplace in the wall. I suppose in the wall.
So, if there is no voltage at the switch the problem is to find out
where that wire goes, the one that goes down from the switch.

At this point a map of all the outlets in the house would be useful. I
have such a thing posted inside my breaker box. I went through all the
breakers, turning them off one at a time and made a map of all the
outlets and lights and which breaker controls them.

You could do that now and perhaps find out what outlets are controlled
by the fan (light?) breaker.

That double set of wires must have been installed at the same time.
Normally there would be just the one set running through the switch.