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I've purchased a Hampton Bay ceiling fan with a lamp and I'm trying to connect it to my house wiring. I can see the following house wires:

  • 2 connected (twisted) white wires
  • one wire of blue'ish color (maybe purple, I'm not good with colors)

What I've tried:

  • I connected the white fan wire to the white twisted pair of house wires.
  • All the other fan wires were connected to the blue house wire. Result: short circuit and a broken switch.

House wires: enter image description here

Fan wires (2 green, blank, white, blue): enter image description here

How should I connect my ceiling fan to the house wires that I have?

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    Can you post photos of the insides of both the fan and switch boxes please?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Apr 6, 2021 at 11:43
  • All the other fan wires ? Connected together? If there is a green or green with a yellow strips that will create a short to ground. Don’t hook up wires just to hook them up some may not be needed or for other options. What are the colors of the other wires?
    – Ed Beal
    Apr 6, 2021 at 15:09
  • Sorry for not adding the photos, I've amended my question
    – Yuri Lapitsky
    Apr 7, 2021 at 16:32
  • We need to see pics of the insides of both the ceiling box and the switch box.
    – Jim Stewart
    Apr 7, 2021 at 17:14

1 Answer 1

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These fans have one hot wire for powering the fan (usually the black) and another another hot wire powering the light (usu blue). These go to separate pull chain switches in the fan assembly.

The fan and light share a neutral (white). Note that in your house wiring all neutrals will be white, but depending on the age of your house, white may be used for a hot or switched hot so it is not correct to just connect all whites without knowing the function of a given white.

The green is a ground so if you connected the green to either the black or the blue it would short to ground as soon as the switch was turned on with the breaker on. The green should be connected only to the ground of the house wiring.

If you have only one wall switch and so only one hot wire from the house (black), then connect the black and the blue of the fan to the black of the house. Separate pull chain switches allow separate control of fan and light.

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  • Thank you for your response!
    – Yuri Lapitsky
    Apr 7, 2021 at 20:57
  • So the fan's black and blue will connect to the house's blue'ish (non-white) and the fan's green (2 of them) and white will connect to the house's white. Right?
    – Yuri Lapitsky
    Apr 7, 2021 at 20:58
  • The fan's black and blue are to be connected together to the switched hot (a hot controlled by the switch). The switched hot may be either black or white depending on how the switch is connected. You need a voltage detector to be sure if a given white is a neutral or a hot (always hot or switched hot). The fan's white will be connected to the house neutral which will be white. The green of the fan will connect to the ground of the house wiring. This is usually a bare wire.
    – Jim Stewart
    Apr 7, 2021 at 21:20
  • Thank you, Jim! So in my case I do not have ground. I just see two connected white wires. I will double check them but they are not hot most likely. In this case (white is not hot), should I connect my fan's green wires (two) to the white wires?
    – Yuri Lapitsky
    Apr 7, 2021 at 22:35
  • This is in Chicago, right? And you have no ground? Is the wiring non-metallic (NM) cable, aka Romex? Or is the wiring individual wires in metallic conduit or flexible armored cable with no ground wire inside? We need a picture of the ceiling box. You have already hung the fan so you may not be able to take an unobstructed pic. In that case you would need to get a voltage tester.
    – Jim Stewart
    Apr 7, 2021 at 23:24

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