Wiring Diagrams for Ceiling Fan and Light Kit

This page contains wiring diagrams for household fans including: ceiling fans and light kits, dimmer switches, fan speed controllers, 3 way fan switches.

The wire colors in a basic fan/light kit are typically black, blue, white, and green. This is true of most Hunter and Harbor Breeze ceiling fans found at your local home store. The black wire is usually the hot for the fan and the blue wire is the hot for the light. The white wire is the neutral for the fixture and the green is the ground.

The white wire from the fixture is connected directly to the source neutral wire, either at the fixture box or through a splice at the switch box. The ground wire is spliced to the source ground and to any outlet box terminal using a pigtail. In some household circuits, the white wire may also be used to substitute for a hot wire. In these cases, it should be wrapped with black electrical tape or otherwise marked to identify it as hot.

This wiring diagram illustrates the connections for a ceiling fan and light with two switches, a speed controller for the fan and a dimmer for the lights. Use this arrangement when the source is at the switches. Here the input of each controller is spliced to the black source wire with a wire nut. From there, 3-wire cable runs to the ceiling outlet box. At the switch box, the black wire from the fan is splice to the output on the speed controller and at the other end to the black fan wire. The red wire is spliced to the output on the dimmer and at the other end to the blue light wire. The neutral from the source is spliced in the switch box with the white wire running to the fan and at the other end to the neutral wire on the ceiling fixture. Likewise, the ground wire is connected to any grounding terminals in the switch box and spliced to run to the fan location and connected to all grounding points there.

Wiring Diagram Fan and Light with Source at Ceiling

This diagram is similar to the previous one but with the electrical source originating at the fan/light fixture box. Use this when the power comes in at the ceiling and run three-wire cable from there to the controllers on the wall. The neutral wire from the source is spliced directly to the white wire on the ceiling fixture. The hot source wire is spliced to the white on the 3-wire cable and then spliced to the input wires on both controllers at the other end. The white wire is wrapped with black tape to identify it as hot. The black cable wire connects the fan to the speed controller and the red wire connects the light to the dimmer. This is an outdated circuit. When installing new wiring for an arrangement like this use the next diagram below.

This is the updated wiring for a fan/light kit with the electrical source coming in at the ceiling box and should be used for new installations. This arrangement adds to the circuit illustrate above an extra 2-wire cable between the fan/light and switches. The white wire in the 3-wire cable is no longer used for hot, instead it runs the source neutral through to the switches and satisfies the 2011 NEC requirement for new switch boxes. Two wires in this arrangement are not used, the white wire in the second cable and one of the ground wires. These should be capped at both ends with a wire nut. All other wiring is the same as in the previous diagram.

3 Way Fan Switch Wiring Diagram

To wire a 3-way switch circuit that controls both the fan and the light, use this diagram. As with all 3-way circuits, the common on one switch is connected to the hot source wire from the circuit. The common on the second 3-way switch is connected to the hot wires on the fan/light. Splice both the fan and the light hot wires together with the common wire from the SW2. The traveler wires are spliced together in the ceiling fixture box to run between switches. The travelers do not connect to the fan or light. To control the fan and light separately, a builtin switch such as a pull-chain or remote control is required on the fan/light.

Ceiling Fan Dimmer Switch Diagram

This wiring arrangement allows for lowering the lights with a dimmer and controlling the fan with the builtin pull-chain. The source is at the ceiling outlet box and 3-wire cable runs from there to the switch box. The neutral from the source is spliced directly to the white wire on the fan kit and the cable, running it through to the switch box. The hot source is spliced to the black fan wire and the black wire running to the dimmer. At the other end, the black cable wire is spliced to one of the hot dimmer wires, it doesn't matter which one. The other dimmer wire is spliced to the red wire in the switch box which is spliced to the blue, light wire at the other end.

Wiring a Ceiling Fan Switch Loop

Use this wiring when the source is at the fixture and you want to control the feed to both components with the same switch. Three-wire cable runs from the fan to the switch box and the source neutral is spliced to the white wire and to the fan neutral. The source hot is spliced to the red wire which is connected to one terminal on the switch at the other end. The black wire is connected to the other terminal, running power back to the fan where it is spliced to both the black fan wire and the blue light fixture wire. The switch will turn both the fan and light on and off. With the switch on, the 3 speed fan can be controlled with the pull-chain switch on the fixture.

Here the source is at the fan/light and a switch loop runs to the wall switch. The source is wired directly to the fan and also spliced through to the switch. With this arrangement the light is controlled with the wall switch and the fan is hardwired for pull-chain speed control.

Wiring a Fan and Light to a Single Switch

In this wiring, the source is at the switch and 3-wire cable runs from there to the fan and light. The source neutral and ground are spliced through to the fan location. The source hot wire is spliced to the black fan wire to hardwire it directly to the circuit and to a pigtail connecting the switch. The red wire on the 3-wire cable is connected to the switch and at the fan, it's spliced with the blue wire to the light. With this arrangement, power to the fan is controlled with a builtin pull-chain on the motor housing and the light is controlled with the wall switch.

Use this wiring when the power source originates at the wall box and you want to control both the fan and light with a single switch. Here the hot source is connected directly to the switch and 2-wire cable runs from there to the ceiling fan. The black wire running to the ceiling box is connected to the other terminal on the switch. At the ceiling location, it's spliced to the black and blue wires from the fan and light. The source neutral is spliced through to the white wire on the fan. The source ground is spliced through to the ceiling box and connected to the green ground wire on the fan and to any grounding terminal found there. With this arrangement, the fan and light are turned off and on with the wall switch and the fan speeds are controlled with the builtin pull-chain on the fixture.