O/T: Wiring ceiling fan

venster

I'm having a bit of trouble wiring up my ceiling fan to the ring circuit.

I have as supply :

3 Red
3 Earth
2 Black
1 Black ( with red sleeve )

I have connected the 3 red together in a multiblock to keep the circuit

Connected both blacks to the the neutral of the fan

Connected the Black(red sleeve) to the live of the fan

I have connected all 3 earth in a multi block and connected them with a multiblock to all 4 earth on the fan.

I go to switch RCD back on in the consumer unit it wont switch on.....

If I disconnect the earth from the Fan then it does switch on....

What have I overlooked?

I've taken 1 fan back because I thought it was faulty, but surely not 2 fans......

Ollieda

So it works when the earth is not plugged in but doesn't wrok when earth is plugged in?

Earth might be grounding out somewhere. Firstly if possible wire something else up so you can confirm its the earth in the fan thats faulty and not your system. Then have a look at the fan to see if theres anything obvious.

Where's the fan from? i.e. wheres it made / made for. If say its from the continent and sold over there but also shipped over here then the earth wiring might be aftermarket to fit in with our safety standards. Lots of european places don't use earth wiring too much (hence you get a lot of european appliances only have two pronged plugs).

Might be something to check.......or could be something completely unrelated, the joy of electronics!

Mr_Cellophane

Ollieda wrote:

Earth might be grounding out somewhere.

Isn't that what the Earth is supposed to do :roll:

Are you wiring this into the lighting ring ?
Does it have a built in pull switch ?
With all those wires it sounds like you are wiring in a switch circuit as well. Especially with a Black ( with red sleeve )

venster

Yes wiring into lighting ring in bedroom.

Fan has a pull switch and another (red) wire (which I omitted from first post) from the fan that says 'light' which I've wired into the live from the supply.

I carried out the same 'procedure' on another fan in a different house and that worked fine...

Am I doing something obviously wrong but can't see it ? :?

Aggieboy

Just screw it to the ceiling and run around it. Easy.

sheffsimon

RCD trips when mains is leaking to earth, not earth "grounding out".

Presume its RCBO not RCD??

morstar

For every light switch in the room, the wires seem to multiply exponentially.

I have done quite a bit of wiring in our house but I am well aware of my limitations. Time to call a sparky!

Do you have children?

Red Rock

Aggieboy wrote:

Just screw it to the ceiling and run around it. Easy.

One of the houses behind mine had a very bad fire last year, which resulted in the roof caving in, and all because of a faulty bedroom light. If you're not competent then call an electrician and get it done properly.

inkyfingers

Remember that these days you legally should to get wiring work signed off by a sparky, otherwise if it does go wrong and cause a fire you're insurance will be probably be void.

venster

SheffSimon wrote:

RCD trips when mains is leaking to earth, not earth "grounding out".

Presume its RCBO not RCD??

The switch for ' UP LIGHTS ' says non-RCD protected, only the sockets are RCD protected.

Just screw it to the ceiling and run around it. Easy

Or get a rotating bed ....

venster

Ollieda wrote:

Firstly if possible wire something else up so you can confirm its the earth in the fan thats faulty and not your system. Then have a look at the fan to see if theres anything obvious.

I wired a socket into the supply and got my phone charger working so it must be the fan - I'll take it back again and see if there's any NOT from China

morstar

venster wrote:

I wired a socket into the supply and got my phone charger working so it must be the fan

Good idea to get the fan checked despite your logic being somewhat patchy.

I do apologise for appearing argumentative but wiring what, a spur socket? or extending the ring circuit for an extra power point is not the same as diagnosing faults within a multi switch lighting circuit.

It may well be the fan but the cause and effect relationship is hardly proven.

Serious potential for Darwin awards here.

plowmar

Or get a rotating bed .... Wink

Sounds like more wiring to me :roll:

Seriously with that number of wires get a sparky to have a look, a friendly one if poss. as it can get expensive.

Too late now, but your previous light fitting was surely only attached by 2/3 wires, as you will have marked which connection they came from all you have to do is connect the new fitting accordingly.

Or am I missing something ?.

venster

To me it's quite straight forward, keep the 3 reds together to keep loop. 2 neutrals to go neutral on fan and switched live to live on fan. All earths together....

I just wired up the fan to a 3 pin plug and connected it into my previously successful socket and it wont switch on....it must the wiring in the fan somewhere. I'm going to get another make of fan and try that.

My socket was a standard wall socket....2 neutrals from supply into N, switched live in to L and earth in to earth. And of course, the 3 reds were NOT connected anywhere, just to themselves to keep the LOOP.

venster

It was the fans...swapped for a different brand and hey presto !!