Ceiling Fan Wiring Colors

[Maddog1337]

Hi GJ,

This is more of a home living space question and not so much related to the garage, but, I really want to get going on this project. I have seven ceiling fans to install at my new construction home. Hopefully this is quick.

I paid for ceiling fan boxes all wired up. The junction box is steel and I believe per Chicagoland code all of this is in conduit. I'm having difficulty deciphering the color coding of the wires. Was thinking I'd have black, white, and green wires in the box. Admittedly I'm an amateur DIY electrician but hopefully capable of doing a ceiling fan. The wires in the ceiling fan box I have are grey (neutral?), yellow (hot?) and orange (not sure). I have a grounding screw in the box I'm assuming I'd use instead of a ground wire, since everything is in metal conduit.

The fan itself has black, white, and blue (lights).

These are all going to a single switch that turns the fan/light on the fan on/off. Do I just combine the yellow and orange? I'm just confused because these appear to be non-standard colors.

Thanks in advance

 

[Bert_]

They pulled some different colors. It's good because you don't have to trace out wires.

Guessing you have separate switches for the fan and for the light.

The blue wire coming out of the fan is the light. The black wire coming out of the fan is the fan motor.

 

[sparky 1971]

If you just have one switch box, pull the plate off and see what color they hooked to the switch, your black and blue will hook to that one. Grey is neutral. The green screw is the ground. The other wire, either yellow or orange will probably be capped off. It is there to have separate control for the fan and light. Since everything is metal boxes, it's probably not worth the effort to change to a two gang. You could install a stack switch or a speed control/dimmer in the single gang hole and take advantage of what you have.

 

[Maddog1337]

They pulled some different colors. It's good because you don't have to trace out wires.

Guessing you have separate switches for the fan and for the light.

The blue wire coming out of the fan is the light. The black wire coming out of the fan is the fan motor.

If you just have one switch box, pull the plate off and see what color they hooked to the switch, your black and blue will hook to that one. Grey is neutral. The green screw is the ground. The other wire, either yellow or orange will probably be capped off. It is there to have separate control for the fan and light. Since everything is metal boxes, it's probably not worth the effort to change to a two gang. You could install a stack switch or a speed control/dimmer in the single gang hole and take advantage of what you have.

Thank you both!!

 

[dscheidt]

In Chicago, it's common practice to use yellow for the first switch leg in a box or pipe, orange for the next, brown for the third. After that, you'll find purple, pink, and tan. Sometimes blue. the exact scheme used varies a bit, based on the electrician (and what's handy). But wires pulled for a switch by an electrician will never be red or black, that's hack work. Using color makes it much faster to find the right wire, when doing installations. On service work, you still have to figure out what wire is what, but you can count on wires not changing colors between boxes at least. this is one of the very nice things about working with conduit,

 

[dscheidt]

If you just have one switch box, pull the plate off and see what color they hooked to the switch, your black and blue will hook to that one. Grey is neutral. The green screw is the ground. The other wire, either yellow or orange will probably be capped off. It is there to have separate control for the fan and light. Since everything is metal boxes, it's probably not worth the effort to change to a two gang. You could install a stack switch or a speed control/dimmer in the single gang hole and take advantage of what you have.

It's probably already a two gang box, with a mud ring for a single device. Not much work to cut out the drywall and install a two gang mud ring.