[220/221]

One of my guys called me from a service call the other day.

When the ceiling fan is turned on via wall switch, the fireplace (sometimes) ignites.

I don't know how these things work. We provided 120V to a single pole switch and the fireplace guys take it from there.

I won't make you take a bunch of wild guesses.





At the ceiling fan switch JB, he noticed dark/black discoloration on the ground wires. That suggested current flowing on the grounds, right?

He opened all the JB's on the circuit, one at a time, finding the same discoloration. When he opened one up, the issue disappeared.

In that box he found drywaller's router damage to the switch leg of the switched receptacle.

The ground wire(s) were contacting the skinned spot, slightly insulated by a layer of drywall mud/texture. The intermittent thing was because of the switched receptacle not always being on.

Now, as far as why the igniter triggered? I have no idea.

 

[T&K]

Was it an octagon box?

 

[xebo]

It might be that the fireplace igniter uses the grounding path as its neutral connection.

If there is a ground fault on the ceiling fan, the current might travel through the fireplace, causing the igniter to start.

Or if the ceiling fan uses a different hot leg than the fireplace, the current travelling through the ground would get channeled through the ignitor because of the different phases.

In either case, i'd take an educated guess that:

1. Fireplace uses ground as its grounded conductor
2. Ground fault in the ceiling fan

 

[220/221]

Was it an octagon box?

1. Which one?

2. No :laughing:

1. Fireplace uses ground as its grounded conductor
2. Ground fault in the ceiling fan

#1 is my theory also.
#2. Ground fault was in the switched receptacle wire.

 

[T&K]

1. Which one?

2. No :laughing:

Not that it makes any difference on the way it was acting, but just wondering. The reason is because I noticed when I first started using the black push in Romex connectors, I had a couple zipped by the roto zip in octagon boxes. I quit pulling my slack all the way into the box and leaving a loop outside the box, and then pulling it through before I hung the fixture. Since then, it seems I started to find at least one Romex per house hit by the roto zip on the outside of the box. Makes me want to go back to using the screw type.

 

[dmxtothemax]

Was it an octagon box?

What about a blue carlon box ?

 

[220/221]

What about a blue carlon box ?

Almost guaranteed :thumbup:

 

[Shockdoc]

Is it a remote control FP, is the fan remote control from switch( lutron 2=3wire adapter)

Sent from my C5215 using electriciantalk.com mobile app

 

[220/221]

Is it a remote control FP, is the fan remote control from switch( lutron 2=3wire adapter)

Sent from my C5215 using electriciantalk.com mobile app

The FP did have a remote, along with a wall switch.

The fan also had a single pole wall switch and a remote that came with it.