Wiring help!

FlaatusGoat

Looking for some wiring help. Currently have an inline fan that works on the pull cord. On/off. The black and grey wire feeds into it.

Just fixed a ceiling fan in bathroom, runs on a humidity sensor. Requires permanent live and neutral. So I've connected it to the black (neutral) and brown (live) wires.

Result? Inline fan runs when pull cord is on, ceiling fan does not. When pull cord isn't pulled, the ceiling fan does run....

I think I've got my wires crossed. Help!

FlaatusGoat

Just a couple of extra things. When the pull cord is pulled, the black wire is live. When the black wire isn't pulled, the black wire is no longer live. The brown is as the name suggests permanently live...

molerat

I am intrigued where these black & brown and black & grey wires come from instead of red & black or blue & brown.  They are likely "local" wires on the equipment itself so could be doing weird things when switched, you need to wire into the actual mains feed and not try to run them off of each other.

FlaatusGoat

molerat said:

I am intrigued where these black & brown and black & grey wires come from instead of red & black or blue & brown.  They are likely "local" wires on the equipment itself so could be doing weird things when switched, you need to wire into the actual mains feed and not try to run them off of each other.

Isolator. From the isolator I only have a black, brown and grey wire. Grey and black feed into the inline fan. Works fine on/off for the pull cord. Brown wire isn't required by the inline fan...

FlaatusGoat

Ok looks like the black is actually a switched live, not a permanent neutral. So I guess I should use the gray wire not the black one?

Grenage

The colour is irrelevant, you need to know what the wires are. That will mean tracing them and ideally a multimeter. 

That or a professional.

Risteard

Grenage said:

The colour is irrelevant, you need to know what the wires are. That will mean tracing them and ideally a multimeter. 

That or a professional.

Indeed. Although they should be correctly identified with brown sleeving for line (phase), and blue sleeving for neutral. But it's clear that a permanent and switched phase have been connected to this, so it was never going to work like that. Really an Electrician is the answer here.

FlaatusGoat

No electrician needed.

Fixed it. Swapped the black wire for the grey wire. That's all there was to it. So much for money saving here, more like call for a tradie and spend lots of money...

Section62

FlaatusGoat said:

No electrician needed.

Fixed it. Swapped the black wire for the grey wire. That's all there was to it. So much for money saving here, more like call for a tradie and spend lots of money...

...better that than electrocute yourself.  You can't make use of the money you've saved if you are dead.

FlaatusGoat

Section62 said:

FlaatusGoat said:

No electrician needed.

Fixed it. Swapped the black wire for the grey wire. That's all there was to it. So much for money saving here, more like call for a tradie and spend lots of money...

...better that than electrocute yourself.  You can't make use of the money you've saved if you are dead.

Huh? Who said anything about getting electrocuted.

Grenage

Well you were blindly changing wires without knowing what they were.  It's such acts that get people shocked.