Expert: Daniel Humphrey - 1/26/2009

Question
i tried replacing my out dated ceiling fan with a new one but when i connected the blue/blk to hot blk and white to white and ground to ground from fan - it trips the cb.  i dis. all wires and tested one by one.  it only trips when i connect to ground.  -> the switch is on the fan itself.  - it works w/o ground.  i have insulated the ground properly.  what could be the problem.  thanks for the quick reply

victor

Answer
Dear Victor,

You have identified a fault to ground somewhere in the fan itself. It would be a hot wire of course, since a neutral wire short to ground would not trip a regular breaker, just a ground fault breaker.

Just make sure the fault is not in your wiring. You can test the fan itself with your volt meter: Turn off your cb and totally disconnect the fan and check for continuity between the hot wire and the ground--it should NOT have continuity, ever.

Try switching the fan and check for continuity between the white and the ground in the fan itself. Without being connected to your house wiring, the white neutral should be isolated. Black will have continuity with the white wire when the switch is on, but not the bare ground.

I think you have ruled out a fault in the house wiring, since the fan works okay without the ground connection. I would take the fan back.

Good luck. Be safe.


Daniel