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Got a home electrical/wiring problem?
I installed a ceiling fan/light combo in my room. because of the location of the switches, the switch that controls the light is on one side of the room on circuit 1, and the switch that controls the fan is on the opposite side of the room on circuit 2. What is happening is that there is only 1 common (white) wire coming from the fan/light combo. My circuit breaker keeps tripping if the commons from circuit 1 and 2 are tied together on the one common from the fan/light.
Is there a problem with my fan? Is there a problem with tying 2 commons together from 2 different circuits? Is it my fancy CB? (it's one of those new ones required in bedrooms ... can't remember the name right now). Thought about hooking up a normal CB tomorrow to see if that makes a difference. Any other suggestions?
It's a new construction so there wasn't anything there before. I know they're on 2 different circuits because we wired the house.
I'll check the 3-way switch suggestion, that could be a possibility.
We can get the light to operate byitself, if the fan isn't connected, and the fan operates by itself without the light connected, but as soon as we connect them both, the circuit with the fan on it trips.
One last detail and follow up ... the light IS on a 3-way switch, in fact they're both the fancy digital dimming 3-ways. It can be turned on/off from 2 different locations (both on the same circuit though).
I did take out the fancy required bedroom arc cb (still can't remember the official name, I do know they cost like $60) and replaced it with a plain old $3.00 cb and it works fine. I'm guessing something with that fancy arc cb doesn't like sharing commons with another circuit. Any comments?
Thanks for all your help guys/gals ...
Answer:
The problem is you are sharing the neutral for two circuits. You cannot do this with arc fault breakers. Why you have power from two sources to control one ceiling fan is pretty strange. You can remove the arc faults and it will work although they are required by code and your wiring will still be incorrect. You have a parallel path on your neutral. My suggestion is to disconnect one of the wires going to the fan, delete it from the circuit, and run a new wire to the fan, from the same circuit.
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