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So I'm trying to add recessed lighting to a ceiling fan with light.. I have an older home so my switch only has a black and white wire to the switch.. how would I wire the can lights to come on with the fan/light.. I want to be able to run the fan and fan light with the recessed lighting all at once or be able to turn off the fan light off and still have recessed lighting work with fan on..

Billy
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  • Do you mind having fan speed/dimming control? Is the current fan just controlled by a plain switch and pull chains, or does it have a remote on it already? – ThreePhaseEel Oct 24 '21 at 16:58
  • It has just a plain switch – Billy Oct 24 '21 at 17:32
  • Fan has pull strings for fan and light on a plain switch – Billy Oct 24 '21 at 17:33
  • you just run the cans from the switched power to the fan, no big whoop. – dandavis Oct 24 '21 at 17:44
  • So I ran a separate wire off the switch the fan is on and wired in the cam lights in parallel... The lights come on only if the fan light is on and when I turn the switch off cam lights go off and I have to pull the string light on the fan to turn the fan light off.. when I turn on the fan it doesn't want to spin to the speed I set it to it turns slowly... Without cam lights hooked up the fan and lights work just fine... Should I grab power for cam lights straight from the fan and wire them in parallel? Or is there a way to do it from the switch? – Billy Oct 24 '21 at 17:45
  • Here's an answer with a nice switch loop graphic, if you'd find that helpful. https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/159932/18078 – Ecnerwal Oct 24 '21 at 19:20

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You have to get power for the new lights at the fan location.

Your switch only has hot and switched hot (it's an old-fashioned, grandfathered arrangement called a switch loop.) Can't be installed in new work, but is acceptable if already installed when it was still a "to code" arrangement. {Which is what "grandfathered" means in this context.}

Your lights need to be connected to switched hot and neutral, and you'll only find the neutral at the fan location.

White at your switch is not neutral. (It should be "always hot", and it should be "re-marked" with tape or paint in any color other than white, gray, or green - and at the light, it should be connected to a black always-hot feed wire, which tends to freak out people who think that's "wrong." Things get worse when they "correct" it...)

Ecnerwal
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