Before I start, I'll note that I'm about 50/50 on calling in an
electrician over this. I don't want to waste money and this seems
like a very simple electrical install, but I also don't want to either
kill myself or my new ceiling fan.

Anyway, I just bought a ceiling fan to replace another one that had
mysteriously died just after a somewhat shady electrician had come in
and done some work. We called him back, he tested the wiring and said
we had power, so yeah, the fan was just dead. It *was* old, and a
cheap piece of junk. So we bought a new one.

I decided I was going to hang it myself. I took the old one down and
then used a neon tester to test the wires. I have only one black and
one white wire; nothing else. I assume the junction box itself is
grounded, my neon tester lights up when i touch black wire to junction
box.

Problem is it *also* lights up if I connect white wire to junction
box, which doesn't seem right and isn't what other sites have said
should happen. Seems this wire is live, or the junction box is.
Wondering if this killed my old ceiling fan.

Am I off track here? Should I call in an electrician or am I just not
testing right? Everywhere I've read says black to ground should light
my tester, white to ground should not.

Thanks for any help...

What you have read is correct. Something is clearly wrong with the wires at
that box. There is probably nothing wrong with the old fan as well. I would
call in a new electrician and show the ceiling outlet to him and show him
whatever the other "electrician" touched




wrote in message
oups.com...
Before I start, I'll note that I'm about 50/50 on calling in an
electrician over this. I don't want to waste money and this seems
like a very simple electrical install, but I also don't want to either
kill myself or my new ceiling fan.

Anyway, I just bought a ceiling fan to replace another one that had
mysteriously died just after a somewhat shady electrician had come in
and done some work. We called him back, he tested the wiring and said
we had power, so yeah, the fan was just dead. It *was* old, and a
cheap piece of junk. So we bought a new one.

I decided I was going to hang it myself. I took the old one down and
then used a neon tester to test the wires. I have only one black and
one white wire; nothing else. I assume the junction box itself is
grounded, my neon tester lights up when i touch black wire to junction
box.

Problem is it *also* lights up if I connect white wire to junction
box, which doesn't seem right and isn't what other sites have said
should happen. Seems this wire is live, or the junction box is.
Wondering if this killed my old ceiling fan.

Am I off track here? Should I call in an electrician or am I just not
testing right? Everywhere I've read says black to ground should light
my tester, white to ground should not.

Thanks for any help...

On 17 May 2007 15:09:04 -0700, wrote:

Before I start, I'll note that I'm about 50/50 on calling in an
electrician over this. I don't want to waste money and this seems
like a very simple electrical install, but I also don't want to either
kill myself or my new ceiling fan.

Anyway, I just bought a ceiling fan to replace another one that had
mysteriously died just after a somewhat shady electrician had come in
and done some work. We called him back, he tested the wiring and said
we had power, so yeah, the fan was just dead. It *was* old, and a
cheap piece of junk. So we bought a new one.

I decided I was going to hang it myself. I took the old one down and
then used a neon tester to test the wires. I have only one black and
one white wire; nothing else. I assume the junction box itself is
grounded, my neon tester lights up when i touch black wire to junction
box.

Problem is it *also* lights up if I connect white wire to junction
box, which doesn't seem right and isn't what other sites have said
should happen. Seems this wire is live, or the junction box is.
Wondering if this killed my old ceiling fan.

Am I off track here? Should I call in an electrician or am I just not
testing right? Everywhere I've read says black to ground should light
my tester, white to ground should not.

Thanks for any help...


What did the electrician do the first time?

Are you sure you don't have a tester that checks continuity?

Measure the voltage from the black to the box and the white to the
box.

wrote:
Before I start, I'll note that I'm about 50/50 on calling in an
electrician over this. I don't want to waste money and this seems
like a very simple electrical install, but I also don't want to either
kill myself or my new ceiling fan.

Anyway, I just bought a ceiling fan to replace another one that had
mysteriously died just after a somewhat shady electrician had come in
and done some work. We called him back, he tested the wiring and said
we had power, so yeah, the fan was just dead. It *was* old, and a
cheap piece of junk. So we bought a new one.

I decided I was going to hang it myself. I took the old one down and
then used a neon tester to test the wires. I have only one black and
one white wire; nothing else. I assume the junction box itself is
grounded, my neon tester lights up when i touch black wire to junction
box.

Problem is it *also* lights up if I connect white wire to junction
box, which doesn't seem right and isn't what other sites have said
should happen. Seems this wire is live, or the junction box is.
Wondering if this killed my old ceiling fan.

Am I off track here? Should I call in an electrician or am I just not
testing right? Everywhere I've read says black to ground should light
my tester, white to ground should not.

Thanks for any help...


You gotta do some more investigatin' - do you have a voltmeter?

I'd be interested to see what is inside the switch box on the wall as
well, if there is one.

good luck

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

wrote:
Before I start, I'll note that I'm about 50/50 on calling in an
electrician over this. I don't want to waste money and this seems
like a very simple electrical install, but I also don't want to either
kill myself or my new ceiling fan.

Anyway, I just bought a ceiling fan to replace another one that had
mysteriously died just after a somewhat shady electrician had come in
and done some work. We called him back, he tested the wiring and said
we had power, so yeah, the fan was just dead. It *was* old, and a
cheap piece of junk. So we bought a new one.

I decided I was going to hang it myself. I took the old one down and
then used a neon tester to test the wires. I have only one black and
one white wire; nothing else. I assume the junction box itself is
grounded, my neon tester lights up when i touch black wire to junction
box.

Problem is it *also* lights up if I connect white wire to junction
box, which doesn't seem right and isn't what other sites have said
should happen. Seems this wire is live, or the junction box is.
Wondering if this killed my old ceiling fan.

Am I off track here? Should I call in an electrician or am I just not
testing right? Everywhere I've read says black to ground should light
my tester, white to ground should not.

Thanks for any help...



IF (note emphasis) the junction box IS grounded, and when you say
"connect white wire to junction box" you are really trying to tell us
that you are connecting one side of the neon tester to the white wire
and the other side of the neon tester to the junction box, then it's
odds on that the white wire is disconnected somewhere along the way from
that fan junction box to your breaker panel and the neon bulb is
lighting because of capacitive coupling of the voltage on the black wire
to the "floating" white wire which can deliver the few microamps needed
to make the bulb light.

From your writings I'm not sure you know enough about what you are
doing to find the fault, but with the breaker for that circuit off, open
up the switch box for the switch controlling power to that fan and see
if you can spot where the white wire coming down from the fan's junction
box connects, and whether maybe that connection sprung loose from a
poorly installed wirenut or something.

If you don't spot anything there, I'd suggest you call in a competant
electrician and have him find out what the first "shady" guy screwed up.

Maybe if you are lucky you can have the new electrician reconnect your
old fan, see it run fine, and return the new fan to the place you bought
it for credit.

HTH,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

On May 17, 8:20 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
From your writings I'm not sure you know enough about what you are
doing to find the fault, but with the breaker for that circuit off, open
up the switch box for the switch controlling power to that fan and see
if you can spot where the white wire coming down from the fan's junction
box connects, and whether maybe that connection sprung loose from a
poorly installed wirenut or something.

There is no switch that this circuit is connected to. It's a straight
circuit.

What I *will* check is the connections in the junction box itself, I
guess. Both the white and black wires are connected to other white
and black wires in the box. I guess that connection may have come
loose. All of this is some pretty old wiring, though; I don't know
how it could have come disconnected, and at least by eye it looks like
it's still got a solid connection.

Maybe if you are lucky you can have the new electrician reconnect your
old fan, see it run fine, and return the new fan to the place you bought
it for credit.

Well, luckily I wanted to replace the old fan anyway; this just gave
me an excuse. It was one of those ugly $50 fans, it was too small for
the room and it's probably 25 years old. So I'll keep the new fan
regardless.

I guess I'll see if I can't figure out where/if the white wire is
disconnected. And maybe I'll buy a voltmeter. Let's say I test the
black wire to the box and the white wire to the box, and the latter is
extremely low voltage - just enough to light up my neon. Could that
be ok? You can tell I know very little about electrical stuff - I
know to turn off a circuit while working on it, I know how to follow
instructions that say "connect the white wire to the white wire", but
beyond that, I'm probably pretty lost.

I probably should have been clearer about what my earlier electrician
did (I was in a hurry while writing) - he actually didn't touch this
circuit before the fan died, which is what's weird about it. He was
up in the ceiling in another room, and it was right after that that
the fan died, but I verified by testing the breakers that he was on a
whole other circuit. So I don't know what he could have done that
would have affected this, but I thought it was a little suspicious.

He *did* originally move that ceiling fan from another room into the
living room, but that was like a year ago and it worked fine all
through the previous summer. So he *has* touched that circuit in the
past, but he thought it must have been coincidence that the fan died
right after he was at my house the last time, and I was inclined to
agree after testing which circuits he was actually working on. But
now I'm not so sure.

Bottom line question I guess is, if I buy a voltmeter and it turns out
the white wire voltage is there but extremely low, should I go ahead
and connect the fan? Or should I call in a new electrician regardless
of anything? I have enough skills to turn breakers on and off and to
test exposed wires, but no way am I going to be able to go digging
around my house myself trying to figure out where a bunch of stray
voltage is coming from.

Thanks...