Wiring in a Ceiling Fan

Ok, so this has the potential to be the most boring blog in the history of the internet so we’ll try and keep it interesting.

Firstly, the usual disclaimer. When it comes to electrics, safety is most important. There are only certain things you are allowed to do yourselves and If you are not experienced or confident with electrical work then we would recommend getting a Part P registered electrician to do it for you. All of the information offered in this blog is for information only, it should be taken only as a guide and Fantasia Dist Ltd cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage caused by using this guide. Always make sure the power is isolated at least 30 minutes before commencing any electrical work.

Now some good news!

If you are replacing a light fitting with a ceiling fan then you are able (If you want to) to do this yourself. It’s the same rule that covers replacing a 13amp plug socket. It’s fairly straightforward to replace a light fitting with a ceiling fan but we would always recommend taking a photo of the old light fitting wiring before removing the light fitting. This way you should be able to identify which wires are which.

Now, once you have taken the old light fitting down you may well be presented with something like the below. Bear in mind these are the older wiring colours. If your house was rewired after 2004 then your wires may have been changed to the harmonized version (see the picture at the end of the blog).

The Red wires are permanent live, the Black wires are neutral and the black wire with the red sleeve (left hand side) is the switched live (From the switch on the wall).  Below are the wires you can expect to see coming from a basic ceiling fan & Light.

Wires coming from the Ceiling Fan & Light

Additionally the Ceiling Fan & Light will probably have individual pull switched on them like the one in the picture below

Fantasia Mayfair 42″ SS Combi

The more basic style of ceiling fan such as the one below has two pull switches. This means that you can wire the fan to the permanent live and still have switch control.

Soooooooo…..

With all this new-found knowledge we can now wire the fan up to operate. The way we would recommend doing this is so that the ceiling fan is operational evening when the wall light switch is off (so you can use the fan at night with the light switched off at the wall). To do this you need to wire:

1. Light on Fan Live (Orange) TO Switched Live (Black with Red Sleeve or Brown with Blue Sleeve)
2. Ceiling Fan Live (Brown) TO Permanent Live (Group of Red or Group of Brown)
3. Neutral (Blue) TO Neutral (Black or Blue)
4. Earth TO Earth (Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust)

Ensure the Earth is connected up, this is a safety feature and safety is most important.

If you only have a Switched Live and no permanent live then the Live from the fan AND the Live from the light will both need to connect to your switched live BUT this will mean than both the fan and light will only work when the wall switch is in the ON position.

Equally, if you only have a permanent live at ceiling level then you can connect both the Live from the fan and the live from the light to the permanent live and operate both independently on the pull cords on the fan itself

Remote Controls

Some fans have a remote control handset and receiver. This actually makes things easier as the remote receiver splits the lives so you only need one live input. We would recommend using the switched live to power the remote receiver. This means that, in the unlikely event of a remote receiver failure, you can switch off power to the unit at the wall switch.

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As mentioned earlier, in 2004, and just to make your life more complicated, wiring code in the UK was ‘Harmonized’. See the illustration below. This means that all appliances that need wiring in will also have the new harmonized colour coding

We hope this helps and thanks for reading.

Other blogs on interesting ceiling fan stuff can be found below:

Fitting A Ceiling Fan in a Conservatory

Fans Wobble & They’re noisy – Untruth

Should I care about LED Lighting?

For EVEN more information take a look at our website