I am hooking up a ceiling fan/light with only one switch that goes to it, need help?

Question:The wires from the ceiling are red, black, white and copper. From the fan, they are black, blue white and green. What goes where? I have been trying this for a week now with no progress. The dang thing never turns on.

Answers:
Safety first! 1: Be sure to do this wiring with the power switched off at your main circuit breaker or fuse box. 2: verify that the power is off with a voltage tester - either a volt meter (on the a.c. setting) or a cheap tester available from a hardware store for that purpose.

Each device (fan, light) will need two power wires to operate.
- White is a standard color indicating a neutral, which is one of the two wires. So white (from the ceiling) and white (to the fan) should be connected together directly.
- Copper and green and standard indications of a safety ground, so they should be connected together.
- From the fan, the black and blue wires indicate the individual power to the fan and light. I don't know which is which, but I don't think it matters, since only one wall switch means they will turn on together.
- The black wire from the ceiling normally indicates a main (unswitched) power wire. This wire should probably be connected to another power wire (this may be the reason nothing is working - there is no voltage to the switch). Try to find an outlet and connect its black wire to this black wire.
- The red wire from the ceiling is my best guess for the switched wire. It should be connected to both the black and blue wires at the fan.

Of course, with only one wall switch, you will not be able to control the fan and light independently from the wall. There are probably one or two pull-chains on the fan to switch the fan and light off, assuming the wall switch is on.

In summary: ceiling red = fan green, ceiling white = fan white, ceiling black = another black from an outlet, ceiling red = fan black + blue.