How to Use Two Wires to Install a Ceiling Fan With Three Wires

Replacing a room's light fixture with a ceiling fan/light combination requires either connecting the unit's three wires to the two wires that feed power to the light from a single light switch or running a third wire strand behind drywall and installing a second switch. The latter option often leads to unnecessary drywall damage. When a fan/light unit is connected to a single switch, the switch turns power to both parts of the unit on and off at the same time, and the unit's pull chains operate each part individually.

Screwdriver
Wire nuts

Instructions

- 1
  Turn off the circuit breaker to the room where the ceiling fan will be installed. Never trust the light switch as a power disconnect.
- 2
  Mount the ceiling fan according to the manufacturer's directions. Leave the two wires coming from the ceiling's electrical box and the three ceiling fan wires exposed on the same side of the ceiling fan's mounting bracket.
- 3
  Wrap the copper wire from the ceiling's electrical box around the green screw on the ceiling fan's mounting bracket. Tighten this screw with a screwdriver.
- 4
  Wrap the ceiling fan's white wire around the white wire from the ceiling's electrical box. Spin a wire nut over this pair of wires.
- 5
  Combine the ceiling fan's remaining two wires with the black wire from the ceiling's electrical box. Twist the ends of these three wires together and cover them with a wire nut.
- 6
  Push both sets of wires into the ceiling's electrical box. Finish installing the ceiling fan.

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