# 3-way wiring- ceiling fan with remote for two-wire hookup



## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

> my feed is now coming into the first switch, in a feed,first switch, light, 2nd switch configuration.


You need to explain this better. Is there an existing light or switches?

Is the existing light on a 3 way switch circuit?

If so, is there a two or three wire cable going to the light?

The first thing to do is look at the fan/light. MOST of them have a separate (blue or black w/white stripes) wire for the light. If it doesn't have this, you will have to go to plan B.


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## II Weeks (Jan 6, 2009)

You can still run a standard three way but you surrender all controls to the remote. So you'll have a single pole double throw three way switch at your two locations but the fan speed and light intensity have to be controlled from the remote.

Thats the way it is with the few Ive installed so I might be wrong with the one you have.

so what youre saying is that you have power going into sw1. from sw1 to sw2 you have a 3 wire. from sw2 to the light you have a 2 wire.
thats all you need.

personally, I dont like the remote onlys. It will get lost. I like running a 3 wire to the light/fan and having that controlled on indivisual dimmers ( Run a three wire from sw2 to the light/fan anyway even if you want to use the remote so when it does get lost, you'll have that third wire in the box ready to go)

but is this what you have?


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

If the fan does not have a separate wire for the light then you can't do it. You need to be able to switch power to the lights from the 3 way switches and have power to the remote to operate the fan.
The way you have described it there is only one power feed to the remote. Using switches will turn everything off.


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## Stubbie (Jan 7, 2007)

If I'm understanding you correctly this fan only has a black and white wire that will connect to the incoming power. Is that correct? If this is the case then you can have the 3 way but understand that you have switched power to the ceiling fan/light only. One switch or the other can turn the light off but it will also turn the fan off and on. One the other hand as long as one switch or the other is in the 'on' position you can have control of the fan and light with the remote.
A lot of remote fans are like this and you wire the black and white to the remote receiver then the reciever to the fan and light. The light dome usually connects with a plug. Thing is as JOED has said with switches you turn everything off.

Usually these fans are wired to a constant hot source giving you control with the remote.


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## mr_snuffle (Feb 3, 2009)

ok to better inform you guys. right now there is just a light in the dining room controlled by one switch. its old ungrounded wire so its all being replaced. so i'm starting from scratch which is why i am starting here. so whatever combination of conductors i need doesn't matter. i just need to know how to wire this all so it works well. i would like to have the fan between the two switches with the lead power coming into one of those switches. 


so as far as some have said. yes its a remote only fan and it does have the black white and the blue in the fan but the fan itself has no individual controls. and the remote control box has just a black and white and then the leads to the light/fan. i have no problem wiring the light to three way switches. but i want the fan to run while the light is not on, and the remote has to work it cuz its the only way to change speeds.

see the part that confuses me most is that i installed one of these fans with just a single switch and it works flawless, but i do know that regardless of whether the remote is there or not, if you hit the switch up to on the light turns right on. i'm not sure whether the light would still recognize this function if its wired in a three way circuit. 

or is my only option going to be to wire the light direct to the 3 way circuit and not having the remote function for the light, and then wiring only the fan portion to the remote. if the above senario doesn't work, i still need to know how to wire this 2nd senario. cuz i'm not quite sure where i get the constant power for the remote/fan in the ceiling box using the fixture between switches and power going into one switch layout.


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## II Weeks (Jan 6, 2009)

> i'm not sure whether the light would still recognize this function if its wired in a three way circuit.


the light has no idea on how many switches it has in a circuit. with the basic wiring like shown above you should have no problem and this unit and it will operate just as easily.

( I would still recommend you run a three wire to the unit and just cap off the wire not in use)


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## Stubbie (Jan 7, 2007)

Wired power to switch first then fixture then switch. Understand that you will have control of the fan and light with the remote with a switch on. Either switch can turn light off but also the fan will go off. Leaving a switch on will allow you to operate the light or fan or both thru the receiver with the remote. Ground is not shown.


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## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

OK....simple. There are *many *different methods and color combos to use. This is the first one that comes to mind and possible the easiest to explain.


2 wire cable feeds the first switch

3 wire cable from switchbox 1 to switchbox 2

3 wire cable from switchbox 1 to fan/light box

*switchbox 1:* (One 2 wire cable and 2 3 wire cables)

connect white wire from 2 wire feed to white wire in fan/light 3 wire.

Connect all 3 blacks. Connect red wire in fan/light cable to common terminal of 3 way switch. Connect red and white to remaining two terminals in any order. (see note at bottom)

*Switchbox 2: *(one three wire cable)

Black wire goes to _common_ terminal on 3way switch, red and white to the other two.

*Fan/light box:*

Black to black, white to white, red to blue. (black will be always hot, red will be 3way switched, neutral will provide a path _back_ for the current for both fan and light)


Light will work via the 3 way switches and fan will work via remote.


To the pros, I left out _identify the white traveler_ as to keep it simple. I never do it anyway.

Note: if you are installing wiring first, then drywall, wrap the red fan/light wire around the red white switbox 2 wires and tuch them into the box.. When you install the switch after drywall/paint you will know that the single red, wrapped around the red and white is your* common* and installs on your *common *terminal


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## kbsparky (Sep 11, 2008)

Since you are dealing with a built-in remote fan, there is no blue wire to deal with, so you may have to disregard earlier posts that include instructions for a 3-wire fan setup.:yes:

One thing to consider here is most fan remotes have a feature that allows the control to "remember" its last setting -- if you had the light on half-dim, and then cut power, once power is restored, it will return to that setting.:huh:

Other controls however, do not, and revert back to a default setting.

I would recommend figuring out which type of control you are dealing with first.

Another solution here is to buy a 2nd transmitter, and mount it on the wall at the other end of the room, and forget trying to make this thing work with a 3-way switch. :whistling2:


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## theatretch85 (May 17, 2008)

Just as an FYI, they do make wall mounted controllable fan switches to control the speed of the fan without the use of a remote. You are not required to use the remote control (unless you really want to use it). It just seems by the way you worded your post that you _have_ to use the remote because its the only way you can change the fan speed.

A lot of remote controlled fans are simply an add-on remote receiver unit that sits in the bell housing of the fan, and they are usually not integrated into the fan. So removal of this unit should be no big deal and as far as controlling the light and fan separately from a 3 wire cable should be easy as well.

I've personally seen some "issues" with the wireless fan remote here where out of the blue the fan or the light will just turn on by itself, no one touches the remote or the wall switch, etc it just turns on. We rarely ever take the remote off the wall (it's got a special hook that mounts over the wall switch that powers the fan box) and it probably would have been best to put in a double switch box with a separate fan and light switch combo.


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## Stubbie (Jan 7, 2007)

> so as far as some have said. yes its a remote only fan and it does have the black white and the blue in the fan but the fan itself has no individual controls. and the remote control box has just a black and white and then the leads to the light/fan. i have no problem wiring the light to three way switches. but i want the fan to run while the light is not on, and the remote has to work it cuz its the only way to change speeds.





> See the part that confuses me most is that i installed one of these fans with just a single switch and it works flawless, but i do know that regardless of whether the remote is there or not, if you hit the switch up to on the light turns right on. i'm not sure whether the light would still recognize this function if its wired in a three way circuit


You said you have installed this same fan with a single pole switch. Putting it on a three way will not change the way it operates. You just have two places to turn it off and on. But what KBsparky says needs to be considered. You only have a black and white so switches basically turn power off to the fixture or turn power on to the fixture. With a switch 'off' you have no power so the remote will not work anything. From what you have said if you turn the switch off then come back later and turn it on the light will come on regardless of the remote. So I would say there is some default that allows that to happen when power is turned off with the switch. A 3 way won't change that but as Kbsparky has said it really isn't meant to be installed that way. 
I installed a Hunter remote ceiling fan about a month ago and it sounds pretty much to have the same operation as yours. You had a black and white from the reciever that connected to incoming power. Then there are wires leaving the reciever to the fan and light dome. The light dome simply had a plug that connected to the female receptacle coming from the fan motor assembly area. The reciever is simply the switching control for the remote. You wired the reciever to constant power ....no wall switches. Nothing keeps you from having a 3 way switch to the fan/light. What we are all trying to say is that with the 3way in an off position you will not be able to control the fan as there will be no power to the ceiling fan/light fixture. Once you turn a switch on then the light may come on due to default then you can turn it off with the remote. Point is you have no fan or light control with the remote with a switch off. So it's up to you how you want to do things.


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## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

> Since you are dealing with a built-in remote fan, there is no blue wire to deal with,


 



> yes its a remote only fan and it does have the black white and the *blue* in the fan


 

Most fans I deal with have the standard wiring in place so you can leave the remote out of the equation. The reciever fits (barely) into the canopy.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

You would do better to bring the power to the fan first. That way you can have unswitched power for the fan remote and connect the light to the switches.


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## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

> You would do better to bring the power to the fan first


Better or different?

1. Personally I like to keep circuitry out of fan/light boxes. It's much easier to troubleshoot in a sw box than a fan box.

2. 95% of the time I use pan/fan boxes. Not much room for extra cables.


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## kbsparky (Sep 11, 2008)

Just an afterthought --- make sure you don't confuse a green wire with a blue one.

I've seen too many DIY installations where they connected the green wire to a switch leg, thinking it was supposed to be blue. :whistling2:


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## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

I used to work with a guy who couldn't tell green from *orange*.

I'm troubleshooting a dead ass lighting short, open the box and say WTF?


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## Stubbie (Jan 7, 2007)

We certainly covered the bases.....

I've spent a while but finally found the Hunter fan I installed and got the wiring diagram. Which I put up below. Using Joes diagram I believe on this particular fan/light you could wire it as he said but you would surrender remote control of the light. The red dotted wire is the remote out to the light. The purple dotted is the remote out to the fan. No pull strings for this fan.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

You do better because if you bring power to a switch and run the switch cable through the fixture you need a four wire cable between the switch with the power and the fixture.
If you want to avoid the four wire cable you could bring power in a switch box, run a three wire cable to the other switch box and run a three wire cable from the switch with the power to the fixture.

The blue in the drawing represents the light wire since you said it was a blue wire.


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## Stubbie (Jan 7, 2007)

After seeing 220's post it does appear there is a blue wire. I wasn't sure there would be a blue coming out with the power wires. I understood the op to be saying there was only a two wire connection for power, which would make sense with a remote fan and the blue connected to the receiver wires so that there would be remote control of both the light and the fan. Joes diagram I would think would be the best if there is no remote control of the light.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

The OP mentioned that there was a blue wire from the light to the remote. He could just disconnect that from the remote and use to control lights via switch. Here is alternate method with power at switch.


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## Stubbie (Jan 7, 2007)

Joe

I certainly agree with you and that was what I was trying to convey about the Hunter diagram. I see no reason that it wouldn't work.


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## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

> if you bring power to a switch and run the switch cable through the fixture you need a four wire cable between the switch with the power and the fixture.


I don't run *through *fixtures except for jumpers to other lights. I probably use more wire than some other people but it seems better to *me*. 

For simplicity, I want the only thing in a fixture/fan box to be the switch leg(s).


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## n0m0renancy (Mar 14, 2009)

*Wiring Fan Transmitter to 3-way switch(es)*

Request Withdrawn


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## lostwages (Aug 16, 2009)

Need a little more info on this setup. I have a hunter fan as well. I have two three way switches wired currently one for the fan and one for the light. I still however want to use the remote. In the fan box I have a 12-3 wire. Any suggestions? Thanks


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