The previous owner of my townhouse replaced the dining room ceiling fan at some point. I'm guessing they wired it wrong because flipping either of the 3-way stitches for the fan kills the power to half the lights/outlets on that level of the house. When you turn it back on, the lights do not come on instantly. There is a short delay, sort of like an older CFL bulb warming up. To avoid that, we strictly use the pull cords to operate the fan/light. We want to replace the fan with a chandelier (no cords). Could this be a simple mis-wiring on the fan? Or do I have a bigger issue on my hands? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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It is typical for fans made since 2009 to have wattage limiters which add a slight delay when turning on the ceiling fan light.
The rest of the circuit should not experience the delay. (other receptacles)
It sounds as though other loads in your house, intentionally or not, are also on the switch. This comes from bring fed from a switched leg instead of a hot. The wiring can probably be corrected at one of the three way switches. Typically power from your panel goes to a switch first. This circuit will contain a wire that is hot (energized) all the time (when breaker is on). The hot wire will go to the three way switch which has two traveller wires. One of those two wires will always have power depending on switch position. The other loads have been tied into one of the traveller wires instead of the hot. It needs to be moved from the traveller wire nut to the hot wire nut.
An electrician can do this for you.
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