FIRST: Turn off the power at the breaker box. Turn on the light where you plan to install the ceiling fan. Make sure that when you turn off the breaker or remove the fuse, that the light goes off. Now turn off the light switch as a double protection. Make sure no one else tries to turn the power back on while you are working.
#
2
Carefully remove the ceiling fan from its box. Read the assembly instructions. Screw together the wood fan blades to the metal handles, but don't screw the blades onto the fan motor yet. It will be easier to install the fan motor, then screw on the blades.
#
3
Remove the bulbs and any glass covers or other parts that can be easily removed from the existing light fixture. Now remove the existing light fixture. Remove the screws and carefully lower the light about 6 inches to expose the wiring. Typically, there are three wires. A bare wire or green wire that is the ground wire. The white wire is the neutral wire, and the black or red wire is the hot wire. Remove the wire nut or electrical tape from one wire at a time. Once you have a wire separated, place a wire nut to cover the exposed wire coming down from the ceiling. This way you never have more than one wire exposed at a a time. Once you have removed all the wires, you can remove the existing light fixture.
#
4
* Check the ceiling mounted electrical box to see if it is strong enough to hold the ceiling fan. You will probably need to reinforce the box in order to carry the heavier weight of the fan. If the attic allows access to the top of the electrical box, you can reinforce it from the ceiling by installing a bracket or 2x4 above the box and screwing in the box to the reinforcing bracket.
#
5
* If you have not already assembled the fan, go ahead and assemble everything, except do not install the blades, pullchains, or any glass parts yet. Check the wires for the ceiling fan. There will typically be three wires: a green or bare wire that is the ground, a white wire that is the neutral, and a red or black wire that is the hot wire. Check the fan instructions to verify each of the wires.
#
6
Install the ceiling fan bracket included with the ceiling fan. This piece connects to the ceiling electrical box. There is usually a temporary hook on the ceiling fan bracket to hang the fan to while you hook up the wires. Working with one wire at a time, start with the green/bare ground wire. Connect the ceiling fan ground wire to the ground wire in the electrical box. Carefully wrap the two bare wires together, then insert the end of the bare wires into a wire nut and turn the wire nut a few turns until the wires tighten up. Then wrap some electrical tape around the wire nut and the wires to keep everything in place. Now, do the same for the white wires. Connect the white wire to the white wire. Twist a wire nut over the wires and tape it up. Now connect the black wire to the black wire and tape it up. Carefully, push each of the wires up into the box, so that you can continue the fan installation. Make sure that no wires are exposed, except for the ground wire if it is bare wire. Make sure there is a wire nut over every connection. There should be no other bare wires other than the ground wire once you are done (If the ground wire is green, then there shouldn't be any bare wires when you are done).
#
7
Now follow the instructions included with your ceiling fan for installing the fan. Tighten screws to hold the fan up snuggly in place. The final step would be to install the fan blades to the fan.
#
8
With the wall switch turned off, switch the breaker back on. If the breaker clicks back off, then there is something wrong and you need to recheck your wiring connections. If the breaker stays on, then try turning on the light switch. The fan should start working. If not, then turn the light switch off and, check the fan for a pull chain or other switch.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Installing New Outlets & Switches
When a builder plans for a switch or an outlet, they have the luxury to anchor the outlet box to a stud, route the wire as they please and trim the drywall appropriately after the outlet is already in place. Adding a new phone, cable or electrical outlet after the home is complete can be complicated. In the image above, the phone and Internet outlets on the left and the electrical on the right were installed by the builder during construction. The dimmer switch in the center was added when I installed our three pendant lights over the kitchen countertop.
With the right tools, a little patience and possibly some dexterity for attic work, putting in new outlets and switches can actually be fun.
Behind each of the devices shown above is a box. In many homes, the box might be metal, but plastic boxes are now very popular. The one shown at left is made for installing into existing walls rather than mounted to a stud during construction. The trick is to saw a hole into the drywall just large enough for this box to slip into it. Note the plastic tab that looks like a flag lying on the top right of the box. It is just to the
right of the UPC. Once inserted into the hole, tightening the screw causes the tab to pop up behind the wall and form a clamp as the screw is tightened. There is another similar tab on the bottom left of the box. This particular box is designed for two outlets side by side, but they are readily available for one, two three or more outlets at any home improvement store.
One of the most useful tools that I use for installing a new box into the wall are cardboard templates. I made these templates by tracing the plastic outlet box onto a sheet of cardboard. The borders do not have to be perfectly straight, but it is important that the template is not oversized.
Before tracing the template onto the wall with pencil, I have to determine the best location. Location is determined by convenience, but also by aesthetics and access to other resources I may need to complete the job. For instance, in the photo at the top of this article, the placement for the switch was first determined by the convenience of using it for its purpose, then I made certain from stud stage photos that I could easily access the electrical outlets behind the wall without a stud causing an obstruction. If I didn't have stud-stage photos, I would need to rely on a stud finder to help guide me. Aesthetics means making sure that the new outlet lines up with existing outlets unless there is a special reason not to line them up at the same level off the floor or counter.
Another handy tool is this drywall saw. It is designed to pierce the wall like a razor blade, then perform like a traditional saw after the blade penetrates the drywall. I picked this one up at Harbor Freight Tools.
After the hole is cut, the opening is useful to help route Romex, Cable TV wiring or telecom wiring to where it needs to go. Before tapping live electrical,
the electricity should be shut off and new electrical outlets need to be grounded and wired correctly. Otherwise serious damage can be caused including a chance of fire or damage to connected devices.
When the wiring is complete, I work the proper ends through an access hole on the back of the outlet box, then install the box as one of the last steps of the project. Wires need to be properly stripped when connecting to screws or using wire nuts with other wires. For this reason, always make sure to leave enough wire to be easily worked with after the box is set into the wall. At the same time, don't allow for too much wire. The access may be difficult or impossible to bend back into the box after the connections are complete.
With the right tools, a little patience and possibly some dexterity for attic work, putting in new outlets and switches can actually be fun.
Behind each of the devices shown above is a box. In many homes, the box might be metal, but plastic boxes are now very popular. The one shown at left is made for installing into existing walls rather than mounted to a stud during construction. The trick is to saw a hole into the drywall just large enough for this box to slip into it. Note the plastic tab that looks like a flag lying on the top right of the box. It is just to the
right of the UPC. Once inserted into the hole, tightening the screw causes the tab to pop up behind the wall and form a clamp as the screw is tightened. There is another similar tab on the bottom left of the box. This particular box is designed for two outlets side by side, but they are readily available for one, two three or more outlets at any home improvement store.
One of the most useful tools that I use for installing a new box into the wall are cardboard templates. I made these templates by tracing the plastic outlet box onto a sheet of cardboard. The borders do not have to be perfectly straight, but it is important that the template is not oversized.
Before tracing the template onto the wall with pencil, I have to determine the best location. Location is determined by convenience, but also by aesthetics and access to other resources I may need to complete the job. For instance, in the photo at the top of this article, the placement for the switch was first determined by the convenience of using it for its purpose, then I made certain from stud stage photos that I could easily access the electrical outlets behind the wall without a stud causing an obstruction. If I didn't have stud-stage photos, I would need to rely on a stud finder to help guide me. Aesthetics means making sure that the new outlet lines up with existing outlets unless there is a special reason not to line them up at the same level off the floor or counter.
Another handy tool is this drywall saw. It is designed to pierce the wall like a razor blade, then perform like a traditional saw after the blade penetrates the drywall. I picked this one up at Harbor Freight Tools.
After the hole is cut, the opening is useful to help route Romex, Cable TV wiring or telecom wiring to where it needs to go. Before tapping live electrical,
the electricity should be shut off and new electrical outlets need to be grounded and wired correctly. Otherwise serious damage can be caused including a chance of fire or damage to connected devices.
When the wiring is complete, I work the proper ends through an access hole on the back of the outlet box, then install the box as one of the last steps of the project. Wires need to be properly stripped when connecting to screws or using wire nuts with other wires. For this reason, always make sure to leave enough wire to be easily worked with after the box is set into the wall. At the same time, don't allow for too much wire. The access may be difficult or impossible to bend back into the box after the connections are complete.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)