I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and replacing it
with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in the box, one from
each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when I hook
up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine, but I'm not
getting juice on the side that controls the fan and light. I confirmed the
fan and light both work. One catch - I have the white hooked to white, and
black to black, but there is a blue wire "left over" coming from one of the
plugs in the box. It says attach it to a red wire, but there is no red wire
in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not getting
juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because nothing has changed.
The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

--
Dave

For a fan-light-heat unit to work you'll need three hot wires from the
switch and one neutral. It appears that you don't have a four conductor
cable which would have white red black and blue wires, but instead you have
two two wire cables, so you've got two whites and two blacks. One of those
whites is the neutral and the other is the hot from the switch that goes to
the blue wire in the unit.
"Airkings" wrote in message
ink.net...
I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and replacing it
with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in the box, one from
each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when I hook
up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine, but I'm not
getting juice on the side that controls the fan and light. I confirmed the
fan and light both work. One catch - I have the white hooked to white, and
black to black, but there is a blue wire "left over" coming from one of
the plugs in the box. It says attach it to a red wire, but there is no red
wire in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not
getting juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because nothing has
changed. The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

--
Dave

RBM wrote:
For a fan-light-heat unit to work you'll need three hot wires from the
switch and one neutral. It appears that you don't have a four
conductor cable which would have white red black and blue wires, but
instead you have two two wire cables, so you've got two whites and
two blacks. One of those whites is the neutral and the other is the
hot from the switch that goes to the blue wire in the unit.

Another example of why you should mark both ends of the wires when you
do this kind of wiring.

"Airkings" wrote in message
ink.net...
I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and
replacing it with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in
the box, one from each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when
I hook up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine,
but I'm not getting juice on the side that controls the fan and
light. I confirmed the fan and light both work. One catch - I have
the white hooked to white, and black to black, but there is a blue
wire "left over" coming from one of the plugs in the box. It says
attach it to a red wire, but there is no red wire in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not
getting juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because
nothing has changed. The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

--
Dave

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:21:10 GMT, "Airkings"
wrote:

I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and replacing it
with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in the box, one from
each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Did your previous setup allow you to turn on each of those three
things separately? Or did two of them work together? The latter,
right? If the former see **.

I think the instructions for the new one are meant to allow all 3 to
work separately.

**I"m sleepy. If the former, post again.


Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when I hook
up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine, but I'm not
getting juice on the side that controls the fan and light. I confirmed the
fan and light both work. One catch - I have the white hooked to white, and
black to black, but there is a blue wire "left over" coming from one of the
plugs in the box. It says attach it to a red wire, but there is no red wire
in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not getting
juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because nothing has changed.
The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

just buy an inexpensive multimeter. measure AC wire to wire with the
various timers or switches on and off.

I have 5 total wires coming in:

From the one side: white, black, ground.
Other side: white, black

The catch is that the unit worked before (it's the same style of unit) with
3 switches - one for each function!

Why can't I replicate what worked fine before??

Dave


"mm" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:21:10 GMT, "Airkings"
wrote:

I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and replacing it
with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in the box, one from
each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Did your previous setup allow you to turn on each of those three
things separately? Or did two of them work together? The latter,
right? If the former see **.

I think the instructions for the new one are meant to allow all 3 to
work separately.

**I"m sleepy. If the former, post again.


Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when I hook
up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine, but I'm not
getting juice on the side that controls the fan and light. I confirmed the
fan and light both work. One catch - I have the white hooked to white, and
black to black, but there is a blue wire "left over" coming from one of
the
plugs in the box. It says attach it to a red wire, but there is no red
wire
in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not
getting
juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because nothing has
changed.
The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

In article . net, "Airkings" wrote:
I have 5 total wires coming in:

From the one side: white, black, ground.
Other side: white, black

The catch is that the unit worked before (it's the same style of unit) with
3 switches - one for each function!

Why can't I replicate what worked fine before??

Because, as RBM said, one of those white wires is the neutral, and the other
one is a [switched] hot leg for one of the three functions. You'll need a
voltmeter or circuit tester to tell which is which.

With all wires disconnected from everything, and carefully separated so they
are not touching each other or anything else, turn the circuit breaker on.
Test for current between black and white on each of the two cables. When you
find it, you've got the hot and neutral. (Start by testing the side that has
the ground wire -- that's probably the right one.)

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 02:18:12 GMT, "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:

RBM wrote:
For a fan-light-heat unit to work you'll need three hot wires from the
switch and one neutral. It appears that you don't have a four
conductor cable which would have white red black and blue wires, but
instead you have two two wire cables, so you've got two whites and
two blacks. One of those whites is the neutral and the other is the
hot from the switch that goes to the blue wire in the unit.

Another example of why you should mark both ends of the wires when you
do this kind of wiring.


ALL the 120V & 240V wiring in my house is like that (12/2 romex). The
wire between 2 3-way switches uses black & white. So does the 240V
wiring. None of it is labeled. I guess the builder (I don't know, I
didn't buy the house new) used what was cheaper.

"Airkings" wrote in message
ink.net...
I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and
replacing it with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in
the box, one from each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when
I hook up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine,
but I'm not getting juice on the side that controls the fan and
light. I confirmed the fan and light both work. One catch - I have
the white hooked to white, and black to black, but there is a blue
wire "left over" coming from one of the plugs in the box. It says
attach it to a red wire, but there is no red wire in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not
getting juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because
nothing has changed. The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

--
Dave
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 02:18:12 GMT, "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:

RBM wrote:
For a fan-light-heat unit to work you'll need three hot wires from
the switch and one neutral. It appears that you don't have a four
conductor cable which would have white red black and blue wires, but
instead you have two two wire cables, so you've got two whites and
two blacks. One of those whites is the neutral and the other is the
hot from the switch that goes to the blue wire in the unit.

Another example of why you should mark both ends of the wires
when you do this kind of wiring.


ALL the 120V & 240V wiring in my house is like that (12/2 romex). The
wire between 2 3-way switches uses black & white. So does the 240V
wiring. None of it is labeled. I guess the builder (I don't know, I
didn't buy the house new) used what was cheaper.

What you appear to be describing is different than what I assumed to be
the case above. If I understand your comments correctly, it is acceptable,
however three-ways using a neutral again should be marked. Tape or paint.

Anyone who has worked on old work very long has a healthy respect for
the fact that not everyone does what they should.


"Airkings" wrote in message
ink.net...
I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and
replacing it with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in
the box, one from each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when
I hook up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine,
but I'm not getting juice on the side that controls the fan and
light. I confirmed the fan and light both work. One catch - I have
the white hooked to white, and black to black, but there is a blue
wire "left over" coming from one of the plugs in the box. It says
attach it to a red wire, but there is no red wire in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm
not getting juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because
nothing has changed. The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

--
Dave

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

"Airkings" wrote in message
ink.net...
I'm removing an old bathroom fan/light/heater combo unit and replacing it
with a new one. There are two sets of wiring coming in the box, one from
each side. It's the same setup as the old one.

Here's the problem. The wiring worked fine on the old box. Now when I hook
up the new box, the side that controls the heater is fine, but I'm not
getting juice on the side that controls the fan and light. I confirmed the
fan and light both work. One catch - I have the white hooked to white, and
black to black, but there is a blue wire "left over" coming from one of
the plugs in the box. It says attach it to a red wire, but there is no red
wire in the romex set.

I don't know if the blue wire is the key, but it seems like I'm not
getting juice in that romex set of wires. This is odd, because nothing has
changed. The circuit breakers are fine.

Help!!

(the brand is Broan)

--
Dave


Replaced my old trutones recntly with Broan ran into basically the same
problem. Unit was controlled by 3 switches on the wall. Light , fan, heat.
Everthing was black and white coming out of the wall there were thre cables.
All the whites turned out to be neutrals with each black wire hot. In your
case with 2 cables I would guess that one white is neutral and the other is
a hot wire. USe a meter and carfully turn on one switch at a time measuring
to ground to see whats what. Neutral should be white wire with no voltage to
ground on it no mater which switch is on.