N/A Electrical question.

[MotoFlier]

I'm updating a 1/2 bathroom in my house. It had a light exhaust fan combo that ran off two wall switches one for light the other for the fan. I'm putting in separate fan and light units and ran into some weird to me wiring. There is one 4 wire out of the switch box that seems to not be using the ground?

Fan is black and white
Light is blue and white
Wiring is

All whites together
Black to red
Blue to black
Ground just hanging out?

My question is both the new units are 3 wire red, black, green. So can I just use the white and black to set it up like it is and leave the greens ungrounded? Seems sketchy.

 

[jsstevens]

What you found is a normal way to wire a fan light combination. The white is neutral, the black and red are individual switch legs. Ground is ground.

For your new light and fan you need the black and white at (probably the light to keep the switches the same) and the red and white at the fan. You can use an insulated wire to jumper from one fixture's white to the other. Tie the grounds all together.

I'd draw a picture, but this is all text...

John

 

[MotoFlier]

What you found is a normal way to wire a fan light combination. The white is neutral, the black and red are individual switch legs. Ground is ground.

For your new light and fan you need the black and white at (probably the light to keep the switches the same) and the red and white at the fan. You can use an insulated wire to jumper from one fixture's white to the other. Tie the grounds all together.

I'd draw a picture, but this is all text...

John

Nice thank you!!
So I will run the live wire to a j box than use some 14/2 to go to each unit. This will make it easy to tie the commons and grounds with Black and red being the switch wires.

Edit: That reads weird I will tie all the white commons and separately tie all the green grounds.

 

[jsstevens]

Nice thank you!!
So I will run the live wire to a j box than use some 14/2 to go to each unit. This will make it easy to tie the commons and grounds with Black and red being the switch wires.

Yes! Exactly.


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[flyingron]

The junction box should be accessible. Any metal boxes must be grounded along with any ground terminals provided on the fans or lights themselves (all lights these days have grounding provisions).

In electrical wiring:

Bare or green: Always the equipment ground.
White: The grounded conductor (i.e. the neutral).
any other color is likely can be an ungrounded (hot) conductor. Typically the first is black, second red, blue third, but it's not strictly required.

The white wire in certain grandfathered cases can be used to bring the hot wire to the switch.

 

[3393RP]

See that screw located below the neutral conductors and their wire nut? Make a short ground jumper using a piece of bare wire. Wrap the jumper around the screw and tighten it securely.

Use a wire nut to connect the new ground jumper, the bare wire in the Nomex bundle, and the green wire in the fan assembly.

This will properly ground the metal fan box, fan motor assembly, and tie them to a ground which leads back to the main panelboard.