Help me install my ceiling fan wiring!

[TXZ1956]

Best way I have found to fish wires in interior walls is to drop about 12' of small link chain down the wall. Exterior walls with insulation require something rigid to push through the insulation.

[alordzot]

Another way to fish the wall is with glow rods. They are 4 to 5 foot fiber glass rods that screw together and are designed for running wire through walls and in attics. you can get them at LOWES or Home depot for around 35 bucks and they are handy for fishing if you don't have a fishing rod.

[Go240Zags]

I replaced my ceiling fan in my living room with one that better matched my furnishings/taste - mission/arts & crafts. The original fan was wired with only two wires and not three so the only way to control the fan and light (other than on/off w/ the wall switch) was through the pull chains. I found a switch on eBay that they also sell at Lowes, etc. that will control both the fan and lights seperately without wiring in a third wire. It is actually a remote unit installed in the top of the fan where it attaches to the ceiling and then at the wall switch is the controller. With this switch I can vary the speed of the fan between high, medium, low and off, as well as dim the light to suit my mood. The part that replaces the wall switch has a small battery in it but it is over a year old now and still going strong. You can get the same thing in a hand held remote (that will attach to the wall too), but I need another remote like I need a hole in my head. I don't mind getting up and walking to the switch, I can use the exercise. RFOL. One minor drawback if a truck or something drives by and has just the right frequency, as it has once or twice, it shut the fan off. This used to happen when I was a kid with our first remote controlled color TV. It had a radio remote, rather than infrared. So we had to unplug the TV at night or you might wake up to voices coming from the living room. The actual remote didn't work very well, but we could change the channel by gigling our keys or by dropping a fork. Great trick to show your friends, only it got irritating when it happened by accident in the middle of your program. The tuner actually went "chunk, chunk" when the stations turned.