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I'm installing a brand-new ceiling fan in our living room. I don't know what was installed there before, but there's one black wire, and two black wires connected to a white wire (*this SE link describes the exact same issue*):

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I decided to install the ceiling fan. The ceiling fan comes with an electric box that has a black wire and a white wire that looks like this:

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I connected the black wire from the ceiling to the black wire of the box, and the black/black/white combination from the ceiling to the white wire in box.

I checked the black cable on the other side of the box (the one that will be connected to the actual fan) and it's hot.

Once I installed everything, I try to turn on the fan with the remote. The fan doesn't do anything. I then connected the lights, and the lights don't do anything. The remote is working fine, so that's not the issue.

I was thinking that the fan is possibly defective (even if it's new) or that I wired something incorrectly.

What can the issue be?

Any help is appreciated.

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    Black to black (probably the single black), White to white. Do you have a tester to see which black is switched?
    – Alaska Man
    Oct 6, 2020 at 19:01
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    "and the black/black/white combination from the ceiling to the white wire in box" WHY would you do that? The white from the fan box goes to the Two whites in the ceiling box.
    – Alaska Man
    Oct 6, 2020 at 19:08
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    It's a switch loop. Look that up...or leave the wiring to someone else.
    – Ecnerwal
    Oct 6, 2020 at 19:41
  • What were the wiring instructions that came with your new fan?
    – Carl Witthoft
    Oct 7, 2020 at 17:55

1 Answer 1

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Fans with remotes are usually meant to be wired up to an always hot wire and a neutral. So you need to take the black wire from your fan remote unit and connect it to the two black and one white wire group. Take the white wire from your remote unit and connect it to the two white wires out of the ceiling. Then cap the single black wire out of the ceiling which is probably a switched hot from a wall switch. If you want to utilize the wall switch, connect the black wire from your remote unit to the single black wire out of the ceiling, white from the remote unit goes to the two white wires grouped. Cap the two black and one white. When the wall switch is off, the remote will not function until the switch is turned on.

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  • This does assume that the existing wiring was installed correctly. One hopes the OP proceeds with caution, and preferably a voltmeter.
    – Carl Witthoft
    Oct 7, 2020 at 17:54

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