ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Paddle fan wiring disagreement

I was on a job today where a bedroom switch box was wired
with two side by side switches and a 3-wire NMC up to control a paddle fan. The black was dedidicated for the fan motor and the red was for the light. This is because paddle fans come with color coded wires and the black is always the fan wire and the light is the blue or other colored wire. The guy who hung the fans said he wired it the opposite because the black should always be the first switch in the box (for the light) and the red the second. Either color code method would work but it left me wondering if one thought process over the color code is superior or more common than the other. How would you wire it?

I typically wire black, light/red fan but either way would work since its thesame circuit. At the same time typically wen i wire a resi, I typically woould not have a neutral in my switch box so i would of had 2 blacks, 1 red, no neutral.

If I understand it correctly you will be bringing a neutral to every switch box in 2011.

Greg, I hope not. While I like the idea as a design matter, I don't think that it's a code issue.

Along those lines ... I'd like to see some of the anticipated changes being the topic of threads in the "2008 NEC" section. Or, am I the only one who bothers?

As to the paddle fan, it matters not which colored wire goes where, or which switch is closest to the door - at least not from a code perspective. Of course 'black to black' looks neater.

When you are using a cable-based wiring method, I really like to bring the neutral to the switch. I like to do this because it makes troubleshooting later, and because we're seeing more lighting controls that require a neutral. With cable as your method, you can't just pull in another wire.

That ceiling box can get pretty cluttered, pretty quick. While this isn't a factor when there is but one switch .... make it a 3-way with travellers passing through, and it gets crowded. For 3-way loops I prefer, if I'm running cable, to NOT pass through the ceiling box. Again, pipe is different; you can pass different colored wires through, without splices.

Reno I put the Neutral/switch proposal over in 2008 NEC. The moderators are looking into a 2011 section as we speak.

for purposes of guass?

~S~

I totally agree with all of renosteinke's points and pulling fixtures to troubleshoot is a pain.

Just my 2 cents :
We only run switch legs and neutrals to ceiling boxes .
Reason 1 : troubleshooting is easier from the switch box
Reason 2 : Light fixtures develop heat , fewer wires in ceiling box means fewer wires subjected to that heat .

Caveat 1 : We don't wire large quantities of homes , mostly for homeowners not builders , so we can wire them as if it was our own home .