Stupid wiring tricks

[tw]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

The remote control receiver has hot and neutral inputs. When I said it had "only one hot lead" I meant as opposed to two hot leads, not that there was no neutral.

Appreciate that you have now defined a completely different circuit. Never short you help of facts (it might trip a breaker). Most important facts are often ones you think are not OR that you did not understand - so ignored. Also asked were detailed wiring questions. Everyone must be answered yes or no. Undefined (no reply) means I will have to ask them but a third time. Please do not make this difficult.

That fact that an old fan may have always been a human safety threat is significant. So, break the problem down into parts. Then analyze each part separately. Forget all bedrooms. Forget all wires in the walls. Deal only with one problem at a time to eliminate exponentially increasing complexity.

Connect a fan to a three prong plug. Get a three wire extension cord. Go to a room with a GFCI (not an AFGI). GFCIs are typically more sensitive.

Locate (hang) that fan so that it can spin freely when the extension cord powers that fan and light via a GFIC receptacle. Yes the fan will have some force behind it. Does that outlet trip the GFCI?

Or get a digital multimeter to measure tens of Megohm leakages in the fan. This is about 10 times easier but too difficult to explain to most.

IOW do not do anything else until that fan's integrity is confirmed by either test and the results confirmed here. Testing the smallest item so that other unknowns (ie wall wiring, AFCI, etc) do not exponentially complicate the problem.

You did not answer every question. What is the capped red wire going to? Did you confirm safety ground wires are safely separated from hot and nuetral wires (ie no cracks or breaks in the black and white wire insulation)? You did not say whether every wire circuit description is exactly summarized.


AFGI or what others may call it. GFCI is required in all bathrooms and bedrooms - a human safety device. To protect humans from electric shocks. AFGI or AFCI or what ever initials might be used - was developed in the early 1990s to be required in all bedrooms since 2002(?). It detects and quashes wire arcs as well as works like a GFCI. It protects from electric shocks AND from arc generated fires. Had Dave's Christmas tree been powered via an AFGI, then the house would not have burned. All pets would have survived.