House electrical issues

[christopher.e.gage]

My wife and I bought our home almost two years ago. The house was built in 2009, so it is fairly new. The issues that I am having is when I flip the light switch to any room that has a fan light combo ( two separate switches one for the light one for the fan) the light will not turn on. I then turn the switch off two more times and it will turn on. I replaced all the light switches with 7 dollar switches which did not solve the issue. The second step I took was replacing the breakers which are AFCI ( not cheap) breakers, which also did not work all the problems occur in the bedroom which I believe requires AFCI breakers by code. The third step I took was going into my attic and pushing away all the blown in insulation from around the junction box. The wire in my home is copper wiring no aluminum. I'm at a lose of what to do next. I am trying to avoid spending thousands of dollars on an electrician if at all possible. Any help or guidance would be gratefully appreciated.


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[Redwolf947]

Does the fan unit have a remote control? My ceiling fan has a control box up in the fan base that I've heard can stop working?

 

[nh_yota]

Does the fan unit have a remote control? My ceiling fan has a control box up in the fan base that I've heard can stop working?

^This.

 

[christopher.e.gage]

It is every fan/ light combo and there are no issues with the fans. They are all the same brands. It varies on the amount of times at minimum twice and usually on the third time it will turn on. It normally happens when the lights have been off for more than two hours. If the lights are on and I turn the switch on and than off than it works on the first time.


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[christopher.e.gage]

No remote controls for the fans.


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[nh_yota]

New ceiling fans with lights are required to come with a wattage limiting device for the lights built into the fan. The devices in your fans may have failed and are causing the lights to work sporadically.

For more information, see the following link:

https://www.americanlightingassoc.com/Downloads/Technology/CeilingFanInfo_9-08-1-.aspx

 

[Rookie2]

CFL's ? or standard lamps ?

wiring in the fixtures is wrong or loose plug in's possibly.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

Verify that it is not a remote actuated fan/light combo; take the fixture apart and inspect the wires coming in.

Go buy you a good meter with a set of leads that you can clamp to the wires. I like these myself, you can clamp them to a wire without having a second person turn on the switch for you.

http://www.fluke-direct.com/product/fluke_ac220_suregrip_alligator_clips

First verify you have power going out from the two switches, verify you have a neutral and a ground going out also.

If that fails to locate the problem, pull the connection loose at the box going into the fan/light fixture and see what you have. Check there to verify that you have power coming from the switches; one for lights and one for the fan, verify you have a neutral and a ground also.

 

[christopher.e.gage]

A lot of great information on here, thank you. I will start going through testing each of your ideas. Hopefully one of them will be the answer.


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[Redwolf947]

Are these fan units newer to the house? Mind telling us what brand model? When did this problem start? I too would drop the fans down and take a look at the wiring and if they have a control box that might be going flaky.

 

[nh_yota]

No remote controls for the fans.

Just because there are no remote controls does not mean the fans didn't start out with remote controls and the remotes were lost or broken before you bought the house. The receivers for the remotes may still be wired into the fan bases. They are usually located somewhere in the fan canopy.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

A lot of great information on here, thank you. I will start going through testing each of your ideas. Hopefully one of them will be the answer.


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A good meter will not tell you a lie, just make sure you understand what it's telling you. Milli volts AC and AC are two different things.

 

[nh_yota]

Considering you said that it happens to all of the fans in the house, unless all of the fans are on the same circuit I'd be hard-pressed to believe that it's an issue with the wiring or breakers because issues like that are normally isolated to a specific circuit.

 

[christopher.e.gage]

As soon as I get off work I will tell you all the brand name and try to figure out if it's faulty wiring within the unit; if they may have had remotes ; and or are they wires correctly . I'm not going to lie I will need to do some research so I understand what my volt meter is telling me.


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[pima67]

Do the other companion switches control their fans properly? i.e. do the switches give you 3 or more fans speeds?

 

[frank001]

My wife and I bought our home almost two years ago. The house was built in 2009, so it is fairly new. The issues that I am having is when I flip the light switch to any room that has a fan light combo ( two separate switches one for the light one for the fan) the light will not turn on. I then turn the switch off two more times and it will turn on. I replaced all the light switches with 7 dollar switches which did not solve the issue. The second step I took was replacing the breakers which are AFCI ( not cheap) breakers, which also did not work all the problems occur in the bedroom which I believe requires AFCI breakers by code. The third step I took was going into my attic and pushing away all the blown in insulation from around the junction box. The wire in my home is copper wiring no aluminum. sI'm at a lose of what to do next. I am trying to avoid spending thousands of dollars on an electrician if at all possible. Any help or guidance would be gratefully appreciated.


In my previous house I had a fan/light combination in the bedroom. You could use the wireless remote to start the fan or turn on the light, OR lacking the remote, you could do the same thing with the light switch - first flip of the switch would turn on the light, the second flip low speed fan, the third flip, hi speed fan.





http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=284998&highlight=frank001

 

[TheEquineFencer]

As soon as I get off work I will tell you all the brand name and try to figure out if it's faulty wiring within the unit; if they may have had remotes ; and or are they wires correctly . I'm not going to lie I will need to do some research so I understand what my volt meter is telling me.


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Well? What did you find? Inquiring minds wanta know....

 

[christopher.e.gage]

Well, I found out that I really don't know what I m looking . I dropped the the lights from the ceiling. All the connections were tightly secured by the wire nuts. There were four wires two of them were live (the black and red one) it had the neutral and ground. I took pictures but don't know if I can post them on here or not. I double checked to see if the switches had the wires tightly secured ( and they did). I honestly forgot to check on the brand name of the fans. Is there a possibility that it could be a defect in the fan/light combos? Is it also possible to have something wrong with the power coming in from the street to my breaker box?


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[TheEquineFencer]

Well, I found out that I really don't know what I m looking . I dropped the the lights from the ceiling. All the connections were tightly secured by the wire nuts. There were four wires two of them were live (the black and red one) it had the neutral and ground. I took pictures but don't know if I can post them on here or not. I double checked to see if the switches had the wires tightly secured ( and they did). I honestly forgot to check on the brand name of the fans. Is there a possibility that it could be a defect in the fan/light combos? Is it also possible to have something wrong with the power coming in from the street to my breaker box?


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See what your meter says.

I seriously doubt it the incoming power from your service, but check it with a meter.

What kind of bulbs are in the fixture? Sometimes the sockets for the bulbs might not be making a good connection....

 

[ripperd]

It is every fan/ light combo and there are no issues with the fans. They are all the same brands. It varies on the amount of times at minimum twice and usually on the third time it will turn on. It normally happens when the lights have been off for more than two hours. If the lights are on and I turn the switch on and than off than it works on the first time.


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Make sure you are not using too high of wattage bulbs. Fan/light combos have an over wattage sensor that will shut the lights down if there is too much wattage hooked up. I had this happen. I just bypassed the wattage sensor inside the unit.