In fact, they didn’t really like ceiling fans at all. Growing up, we had a myriad of box fans and table top fans. Upon dismantling their lives, my brother and I acquired 2 pedestal fans, and a weird round one that sits on the floor. We sold the latter at the recent wannabe estate sale.
This post isn’t about my parents.
This story, my friends, is about living your life on the edge. It’s about taking risks and trying new things. It’s about solving problems and not giving up even when you want to. It’s about how illogical electrical stuff is.
I got a new ceiling fan to replace an old school woodgrain-colored one in my room. It wasn’t that old, but parts were missing, wires were hanging out, the lights were dim, and the glass light thing was broken. Light shade? I don’t know, but it was broken!
I saw this new modern idea of a ceiling fan via a platform that sends me free stuff to review, so why not?
It’s kind of weird, but about half the diameter of a regular ceiling fan.
I knew this would be an endeavor because I've never replaced or installed anything electrical before.
I watched a few YouTube videos to figure out how to get the old fan down. Once I got the blades off, it was time to turn off the breaker.
So, Tina went out and shut off the breakers to both front rooms of the house just to be sure we had the right one off, and I proceeded to undo the wires.
Our first hurdle was figuring out which of the TWO white wires hanging out of the ceiling was the hot (positive) one.
I was about 85% sure which one it was, but definitely wanted to shoot for 100.
For some reason, electrical stuff abandons the red=hot and black=not for white=not and black=hot.
So, we watched a quick YouTube video on how to find the hot wire with a multimeter.
We had to switch the breakers back on and then off again to do that.
The next task was to install the bracket for the new fan. Unfortunately, the screw holes didn't match up perfectly, so we had to break out the Dremel and modify the bracket to make it work with the metal wiring box in the ceiling.
This is a whole thing in and of itself. I’m not a fan of power tools+metal. There’s sparks, it’s loud, I just hate it, so this took about 3 times as long as it should have.
With the bracket in place, we could then hang the fan by the included hook while we connected the wires. At some point, the wires coming out of the ceiling came in contact with the metal housing of the fan and sparked.
That’s not supposed to happen when the breakers are off and we were sure they were off.
Tina stripped the wires on the fan. Again, this was a thing. We had to find our wire stripper and she basically had to gnaw the plastic insulation off the wires because it was impossible to grip. (We realized on the last wire of our second fan, that if you cut the very end off, the plastic insulation will slide right off.)
She connected everything up. We then mounted the fan to the bracket and went out to flip the breakers back on.
No dice.
The fan didn't work. So, I tried to install the phone app thinking that perhaps that might allow the included romote to be paired to the fan or something.
Nope.
Anyway, logic said the fan should work with the remote, no app required. Flipping the wall switch did nothing. We sat around a long while looking for someone on YouTube with my exact fan, etc. to no avail.
At this point, we were about 3 hours or so into this fiasco. We were tired, hungry, and mad.
We went in the kitchen and flipped the light switch. It didn't work. The kitchen overhead lights line up with the light/fan in my room, so something was messed up.
Tina went out and double-checked the breakers. They were both on.
She came back in and we tried flipping the other kitchen overhead light on, and it didn't work either.
Oh man! We use those lights a ton, and really can't live without them. I was so mad because now my quest for a new fan had resulted in a fan that didn't work and now we'd probably need an electrician.
"Are you sure none of the breakers were tripped?"
"Pretty sure. Come check with me."
So, we both went out, and just as I was about to walk away, Tina spotted the tripped breaker. It was labeled "Overhead Lights".
We came back in, the light in my room was on and both kitchen lights worked! Crisis averted!
That’s only half the blessing though.
We just replaced a ceiling fan with hot wires!
Somehow we managed not to electrocute ourselves because God was watching out for us.
Yet, I still have questions.
Are overhead lights normally wired separately from room outlets?
Why does black=hot when it every other application I can think of black=negative?
We’ve since installed a second fan, it went a bit smoother, but almost everything was different! I’m sure a lot of that has to do with the age of the house.
Fun times! Full remodel, here we come!
Every life story you share enlightens me to my past. I think there is an entire 10 chapter book about fans growing up. (And no A/C)
Keep on "reliving". Special times for sure.