How should I wire a ceiling fan remote where two switches are used to control the fixture?

Question

I have 2 wall switches. 4 wires coming out of ceiling (black-hot, red-hot, white-common, bare- ground), a ceiling fan and a remote. How do I wire them and still be able to use wall switches?

I can wire the ceiling fan and just leave the red wire capped with a wire nut, but that leave a useless switch in the wall. The ceiling fan that was up before had a remote and the switches on the wall worked ( 1 switch had to be on in order for the remote to work, and the other controlled power to the fan). How do I wire it back like this?

Answer 1

1. Start by turning off the power at the breaker, and verifying it's off with a non-contact voltage tester.
2. Connect all the bare or green grounding conductors together.
3. Connect the white wire from the ceiling to the white wire on the input side of the remote receiver module and the white wire in the fan.
4. Connect the black wire from the ceiling to the black wire on the input side of the remote receiver module.
5. Connect the blue wire from the output side of the remote receiver module to the blue wire in the fan.
6. Connect the red wire from the ceiling to the black wire in the fan.
7. Cap off the black and white wire from the output side of the remote receiver module.

Now when one switch is on, the remote will control the light. The other switch will turn the fan on and off. You'll end up with something like this.

Alternatively, you could wire it like this.

This way the remote module will control the fan (when the switch is in the ON position), and the other switch will control the light.

_{This answer assumes the black wire controls the fan, while the blue controls the light kit on the fan. Check the documentation that came with the fixture, for proper wiring instructions.}

Answer 2

I installed a Hunter fan that utilizes a remote. The image below is how I did it and it works perfectly for utilizing both switches. One switch turns the light on/off directly, and the other provides power to the fan motor, where you use the remote to adjust the speed.

Note that some receivers have two white wires, instead of one as pictured, labeled "to ceiling" and "to fan." In that case, wire those whites as the labels/manual suggests - it's not substantially different, it just avoids the trickier 3 wire twisted connection.

Answer 3

For my switches to work, once I connected the blue wires for the lights together, I also had to connect those two blue wires to the black wire coming from the ceiling in order for the light to have power.

Answer 4

This was helpful to understand the red from ceiling but to get my remote to work fan and light functions while wall switch was on I had to wire like this: red from ceiling to black of receiver, black from ceiling capped, white from ceiling to white of receiver and light/fan, yellow from receiver to black of light/fan, blue from receiver to blue of light/fan

Answer 5

This is a very helpful site. My setup is like user63515: remote has black & white on input side; blue & yellow output side. House has black, white, & ground wires. Connected black input to black house, white input to white house & white light/fan, blue output to blue light/fan, and yellow output to black light/fan. One wall switch powers entire fan. Make sure fan is on by pulling chain. Remote control now controls fan speeds and the light!

Answer 6

Given the following wires coming from the ceiling, going into/out-of the remote receiver box, and going down into the fan/light hardware from that receiver:

• From ceiling ("C"): white, black, red, and green (or often instead of green wire, a bare copper wire with attachment to metal in the ceiling box)
• Receiver input ("RI"): white, black, and green
• Receiver output ("RO"): white, black, and blue
• Down into the fan/light hardware ("F"): white, black, blue, and green

make connections between:

• C green & RI green & F green (grounds the fixture, very important)
• C white & RI white
• C black & RI black
• C red & F blue (this is the key step that bypasses receiver, gives your second switch something to do!)
• RO white & F white
• RO black & F black
• RO blue to nothing (cap it with a wire nut, make sure the nut won't pull off.)

Answer 7

I did this last night at my condo. The fan is a 2018 Hunter remote, no chains. I wanted to be able to change the fan direction and speed, so I had to use the remote for that. I wanted the light to be controlled from 2 3 pole switches. The switch situation is: single 3 pole by garage entry door. Double switchplate housing a single pole on the left and a 3 pole on the right as you look at it, at the living room/kitchen entrance. Red from ceiling to black from fan and black out of remote. Black #1 from ceiling to blue from fan. Blue from remote is capped off. White from ceiling to white on remote and white from fan all together. Copper from ceiling to all greens and yellow out of remote. Black #2 from ceiling to black into remote. Works like a charm. A check of the 3 pole next to the single pole under a double switchplate revealed black as the traveler connected to two screws on the 3 pole.