Electrical Question

[MoonRiver]

After I bought this house a couple of years ago, I noticed that I picked up a lot of static on the radio. One day, I was listening to the portable radio and found that when I got about 30' away from the house the static went away.

I turned the circuit breakers off one at a time until I found the circuit that was causing the problem. One thing on the circuit is a ceiling fan that quit working right after I moved in. I bought a new one and recently my neighbor came over to help me install it.

Got it installed and working. No static on the radio - until today. I turned off the circuit breaker and static gone.

Here's where I believe the problem is. There are 5 hot wires at the fan. Evidently the wire was pulled to the ceiling and then dropped down to 4 wall plates. My neighbor had a really hard time getting all 5 leads twisted together.

I'm guessing the vibration of the fan has caused one or more of the wires to come loose.

How can I fix this without rerunning the wires?

[rambler]

"5 hot wires"

So, there is a junction by the fan of 5 different wires that are twisted together, and branch out to - I'd guess - 4 different things, and 1 of the 5 would be the hot coming in?

The fan itself doesn't use all 5 hot wires?

I haven't done a lot of wiring, but 5 seems like a lot to put under one wire nut. He is using a wire nut?

The loose wire can cause extra heat & arcing, which over time can possibly cause a fire.

Would have to look at what wire gauge everything is, and see if you can get a wire nut properly sized, if such. Doesn't seem the best setup to have that many leads together in one spot there, if I understand it right.

--->Paul

[The Paw]

depends on if you have enough room in the box, but you can take the hot and wire it to 2 of the wires, plus one "jumper" wire. Then wire the other end of the jumper to the remaining 2 wires. It means 2 wirenuts, with 4 and 3 wires respectively.

[MoonRiver]

Originally Posted by rambler

"5 hot wires"

So, there is a junction by the fan of 5 different wires that are twisted together, and branch out to - I'd guess - 4 different things, and 1 of the 5 would be the hot coming in?
--->Paul

That's exactly what I've got.

[MoonRiver]

Originally Posted by The Paw

depends on if you have enough room in the box, but you can take the hot and wire it to 2 of the wires, plus one "jumper" wire. Then wire the other end of the jumper to the remaining 2 wires. It means 2 wirenuts, with 4 and 3 wires respectively.

That's a possibility, but I'm not sure if 4 wires is going to be substantially easier than 5 wires. What gauge would the jumper wire need to be?

[TnAndy]

Why don't you just buy wire nuts large enough to do the job ?

Red ones will take 3-4 #12 ( look on the box, it has a chart ), and probably you have a red one trying to hold 5. Step up to grey ( next size up ) or blue ( next size up from grey ).

By the way....that may or may not be your static problem. Also check the hot wire ( should be black....make SURE you turn off that breaker first ) at the breaker, and the neutral wire ( white ) for that circuit ( on a bus bar with a whole lot of other white wires ) back at the panel and make sure they are tight. Loose wire there can also cause problem like arcing/static.

[Harry Chickpea]

LOL! You have FOUR wall outlets on the same circuit as the fan??? What happens when you get too cool and power off the fan?

Seriously - bite the bullet and hire an electrician. It is a heck of a lot cheaper than a house burning down. If you don't have the money, then start learning about the NEC and how to do things so they are safe. I do stuff that isn't code, but my dad built radio stations and I know what the limits are. An arcing circuit is NOT good.

[tinknal]

Try the radio at different fan speeds. Might stop when the fan is on full speed. Do you get the static when the fan is off?

[tyusclan]

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

LOL! You have FOUR wall outlets on the same circuit as the fan??? What happens when you get too cool and power off the fan?

It sounds like the circuits are all tied to the hot before it goes through any switch. Wouldn't affect the wall outlets at all.

I would also try a bigger wire nut first. I've tied more than 5 wires together before with no problem, as long as your wire nut is big enough. That may or may not be the problem, but it's a simple, cheap thing to try before going on to something more in depth.

[The Paw]

Originally Posted by MoonRiver

That's a possibility, but I'm not sure if 4 wires is going to be substantially easier than 5 wires. What gauge would the jumper wire need to be?

The jumper wire should be the same gauge as the other wires, probably 14 I would think.

I guess I might try a larger wirenut first, as other suggested, but sometimes if the amount of wire in the box is limited, it can be hard to get them all together even with a proper size wirenut.