The bath exhaust fan I am installing switches off when I turn the light on and vice versa-what is the solution

switching is opposite of what I need and any combo of reversing the wire hookup gives me the same problem - the fan should come on when the light is switched on but only turns on when the light switch is turned off. This is a puzzle I can't resolve yet, any suggestions? Thx!The bath exhaust fan I am installing switches off when I turn the light on and vice versa-what is the solution
Michael P asked if the light went all the way off or just dimmed. If it goes all the way off, check to see if the switch is in the neutral circuit. It should be in the hot circuit, but I have seen amateurs do it wrong.





If it is in the neutral line, it is very dangerous to you.The bath exhaust fan I am installing switches off when I turn the light on and vice versa-what is the solution
You need to find the existing black and white wire in the junction box that is powering the light fixture. Extend those 2 wires plus ground wire in a cable to your fan. Connect them color to color to the fan leads, and cap off and isolate any other wiring that is there. That should do it.
Does the light go off all the way when it is switched off? Or does it glow real dimly? It sounds like the fan got wired across the switch loop for the light.





Most of the wires in your house are black for hot and white for neutral. Finding such a pair and connecting the fan to it might have seemed like a good idea. But sometimes there is a wire called a switch loop. Power goes to a fixture (the light) or a junction box. At this fixture the black supply wire is connected to the black of the switch loop. When the switch is on it sends power back to the ficture on the white wire of the switch loop. The white wire fo the switch loop connects to the fixture (light) and the white wire of the supply cable is connected to the white of the fixture and you have a light controlled by a switch. To be fuly code compliant the electrician should have used either or paint to make the white wires of the switch loop black - but we don't know who wired this light do we?





Now if you connect a fan to the black and white wires of the switch loop power that should be controlled by the switch is flowing through the fan. With the light switch off, the light glows dimly as the fan doesn't pass enough current to light the bulb brightly, but the fan runs almost normally (there is a slight voltage drop across the bulb so the fan doesn't quite have full power. When the light switch is on it shorts across the fan so no current flows through the fan and the fan goes off - the light sees full voltage and the light comes on.





It's a common mistake made by people who don't know enough about how houses are wired to be messing with such things. You really should call an electrician, but you might find a diagram to help you in a basic electrical repairs book at the hardware store.
Are you wiring your fan to the light or the switch ???





in your light fixture you should have a ground wire (green) and a white and a black...If your circuit is wired properly, the black wire is hot, the white is not. If you want to wire your fan to the light, connect it's green wire to the green wire in the light fixture, connect the white wire to the white wire in the light fixture, connect the black wire to the black wire in the light fixture. MAKE SURE THE POWER TO THE LIGHT IS OFF BEFORE YOU DO THIS.





If you want to connect to the light switch directly. Connect your green wire from the fan to the ground screw in the switch box


Your switch is just a break in one wire either the black or white, Here you need a circuit tester (usually a little light connected to 2 wires about 4 Inches long) because when the switch is turned off, one of it's terminals is hot, the other is not....when you turn on the switch, both terminals are hot. Make sure the switch is off and test to find which one is NOT hot. ...connect the same colored wire from your fan to this terminal, connect your other color wire from your fan to the other color wire in the switch box, you may have to cut it and connect the three ends with a MARR connector. MAKE SURE THE ELECTRICITY OF THE CIRCUIT IS OFF AT THE BREAKER BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING WITH THE SWITCH AND IT'S WIRES When you are finished, turn on the power,,,Either way, the light and fan will be on at the same time and off at the same time