Hi/low/off Switch For Whole House Fan

I've installed two dimmer switches in the bar area of my basement. It's the dial type, where you can push the dial in to turn the light on or off, or turn the dial to dim the light. One dimmer operates the recessed lights in the ceiling, and the other dimmer switch works a pendant light that I have over my bar. The dimmer for the recessed lights works totally fine. They turn on, off and dim. The pendant lights, on the other hand, only turn on and off. They for some reason will not dim. I checked the voltage on the pendants to see if maybe it was an issue of the switch being a high voltage dimmer operating low voltage pendants, and the pendants are 120V with 75 max wattage. I'm at a stand still. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Do any of you have suggestions? I took a couple pictures, not sure what good they'll do. The best I can do for a camera is my iPhone, so they're not the best quality.








      

Hello I need seriouse help! In my situation I have a three switch, one for the light, one for the vent fan, and one for the heater. This is in a bathroom rent house. My problem is that when I turn the switch on for the light, the light and fan turn on, when I switch the heater on, that switch does nothing, the same when I switch the fan on. The wall plate is labeled: light, fan, heater. So what I attempted to do is put a switch outlet combo in. I have two black wires, two white wires and a ground. So I put the black wires on brass and the white wires on black,( they are black screws instead of silver, not sure if I got the right kind of switch). So when I did that, when I turn the switch on, the fan turns on, but no light, also when the switch is on the outlet is hot.( which fine that is how I want it). But what did I do wrong, why does fan work but not the light. I my biggest fear is that I might have made a fire hazard. Please help and tell me if what have done is safe, and maybe help me figure out how to turn the fan and light on with the same switch..  Thank you for all your input, have trouble falling asleep, keep thinking the house might burn down.. Sorry for the long post
      

Hi all,



I have two outdoor receptacles that are wired into a junction box in the crawlspace under my house. They are actually ran into a spare bedroom's circuit...therefore not gfi protected.  There is a switch above the access (indoors) to the crawlspace that powers these outlets and also light that runs off of the junction point also.



Would I be able to replace the switch with a dead front gfci switch to get these outlets protected. Would doing this be safe and up to code?



Would I be better off undoing all of the previous owner's work and putting these on a dedicated gfci circuit?



House was built in '87 and I am in the US.
      

I searched for this answer and could not find it.  I am not sure which brand of furnace I have.  When I opened the cover it says the model number is  G1N80AT100D14B-2.   My furnace works great on heat.  Now that it is hot outside I would like to run the fan setting to get some extra circulation in the house.  I don't have A/C.  How do I hookup my furnace to only operate the fan?  I tried using the "on" setting on the thermostat on both the heat and cool setting but that didn't work.  I am a novice so please walk me step by step.  I am hoping I just switch one of the jumpers on the circuit board.  By the way, I don't believe that my thermostat is even hooked up to the cool setting at all.  Thanks in advance!
      

Older house with the metal enclosed wiring has stumped me.  I am attempting to add a second switch for a fan off existing light switch in bathroom.  Existing wiring:  W,B,R from panel, W,B to light.  2 white wire are tied together, two black wires to one contact and red to other contact on switch.  Disconnected all wires and confirmed the black is live from panel.  It seems to me the light is seeing power the entire time since the blacks are connected? I'm confused, please help. how do I add another switch onto this circuit?  Thanks!
      

Hey everyone - question about home wiring that was done when the house  was built about 20 years ago (which putting it delicately...is very  shoddy at best).  I'd like to think of myself as fairly knowledgeable in  basic home wiring...but this one has me baffled and I really hope  someone can help.



I am redoing a screened-in porch at the back of our house.  There is  currently a working outlet, and single-pole switch that turns on an  outside bug zapper, and a wire running coming into a second  switch...then leading into nothing in the ceiling (presumably for a  future ceiling fan / light install that was never completed).  I gutted  the entire porch and using one of those audible voltage testers,  discovered the wire than ran into the second switch / ceiling box did  NOT work. 



Not thinking much about it, I tried figuring out how the first switch  (to that outdoor bug zapper) was wired.  Most of the wiring for that  switch and the outlet I mentioned is behind the plywood sheathing of the  house...so it's near impossible to figure out where it goes.  Initially  it LOOKED like the power from the circuit panel came into the outlet  first...and then went out to the bug zapper switch.  (Why did I think  this?  The outlet had a B/W wire coming into it...and another B/W going  out back into the wall somewhere.  Tracing that wire along the basement  foundation best I could...it looked like it went right into the bug  zapper switch).  So wanting to completely eliminate the bug zapper  switch, I disconnected all of the wires that were connected to the  outlet to figure out which set was leading to it.



Here's where I got confused.  When I did this and re-tested voltage at  the outlet, one set of wires was live...and the other set was dead.  And  that makes perfect sense.  Yet the bug zapper switch STILL worked.  OK -  so my conclusion: the power for this bug zapper switch isn't coming  from the outlet.  No problem.  But just because I was near it, I decided  to also check that 2nd switch / ceiling wire combo...and what do you know - it was LIVE!



I got super excited it was working but then super baffled because I  didn't do anything to that ceiling wire at all.  In fact - all I did was  DISconnect 2 sets of wires at a nearby outlet. 



Confused but happy, I was ready to pack it in for the evening and  re-connected the incoming / outgoing wires back to the power outlet.   Flipped the circuit breaker on.  No issues.  BUT - now all of a sudden  the 2nd switch / ceiling wire that magically started working was NO  longer working - just like it hadn't been since I started this whole  process. 



Logic is telling me it's obviously got something to do with the outlet  wiring...since that's the only thing I messed with.  But why would the  ceiling wire all of a sudden become LIVE when the wires going into the  outlet were all disconnected?  It's certainly a first for me.  Can anyone help me figure this mystery out?  Thanks gang!
      

Hello everybody! First things first..I don't know much about wiring besides there being a positive, negative and a ground.



I am in the process of gathering information about installing two lights on the soffit of the corners of my house. There is an outside light by the sliding glass door that I was going to tap into for power, since the switch for it is in the kitchen.



My question is will this be possible if I was to run two twin head flood lights off of the same switch.   (  http://www.lampsplus.com/products/br...ht__h9572.html   )





What would be the easiest way to run the wiring for this? Through the soffit or just through the attic? The problem with the attic is there is vaulted ceilings in a few rooms of my house so it is pretty much impossible to walk in the attic to the far side of my house...actually I don't even think it is possible with the amount of insulation and how the ceilings are.



How would I go about mounting the light to the soffit? A junction box? Will I have to run conduit?



Here is a picture of what I am trying to do. Excuse my art skills in paint.





Thank you!
      

I am currently remodeling a bedroom in my home for a new baby.  I have gutted the room and am replacing all the electrical and adding new recessed lighting.  The room will also have a ceiling fan, along with the recessed lighting.  I am looking for a single gang light switch that will operate the ceiling fan independently of the recessed lighting, with a dimmer for the recessed lighting.  I don't have room for a double gang box where the switch is currently placed, as there is a closet in the way.  Is there such a thing as a switch that will operate the ceiling fan and it's lighting on a normal on/off switch, with a dimmer that can independently control the recessed lighting?  I have checked with the local big box stores and everyone has told me I will have to run two switches.  Is this the case?  Any info would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.
      

Greetings all.



This is my first post here, I hope it goes well.



My name is Joe and I have searched Google. and this forum for my answer but have not been able to find a definitive answer to my question.  I have seen many replies talking about getting a tone generator or a line tracer but my experience is that tone generators are for Data and phone cables rather than electrical cables and the line tracers I've found online all seem to be about tracing the line back to the breaker panel so without knowing more I'm hesitant to purchase a line tracer in case it cannot do what I want.

My dilemma is very likely very simple to anyone with electrical experience so I hope it's not too trivial for this crowd.

I have recently purchased a house that is over 120 years old and have a motion sensor light on the porch that is supposedly connected to a switch inside but does not turn on.  I've opened the wall plate and used a voltage indicating pen to see where the electricity is.  In this case there are two light switches, one that has lines that have been spliced and another that supposedly leads to the porch light according to a long time tenant in that unit.  It all looks like a bit of a mess and the connections don't make sense.  In this scenario the black cables have the electricity and the white cables complete the circuit.  The switch to the porch light has a black cable coming from the top of the box going to the switch and a white cable connected to the other screw that comes from splitting the white cable from the other switch.  What I would like to do is know which cables in that wall box correspond to the cables to the porch light.  Can anyone give me an idea what I should do?

Do I need something like the Amprobe advanced wire tracer (http://www.professionalequipment.com...0/wire-tracer/) and can it do what I need, or is there something simpler I can do?

All help is appreciated.

Thanks



Joe
      

This should be simple but . . .



I am replacing a couple old 3 pole switches with 2 new decorator switches. First switch I rewired exactly like the old one black on black pole, a second black on brass pole on the same side, and red on the pole on the other side.



I rewired the second switch exactly like the old one was too.  White on black pole (I know ) red on the brass pole on the same side, and black on seperate pole on other side.



light will turn on and off from first switch but only off from second and will not turn on from first switch if second is turned off.



so I rewired second switch with balck on black pole, white on top brass pole, and red on seperate pole.  Nothing changed.



Do I need to test which wires are actually connecte to each other in the wall or what?



thanks for your electrical wisdom