I have a black/white/and green coming out of the ceiling, all coming from 3 3way switches throughout the room. Wanting to install a ceiling fan with remote control and light. thanks
A:
Technically, you have two 3-way switches and 1 4-way switch. They are wired like this image from Family Handyman:
3-way/4-way diagram
The good and the bad of a typical ceiling fan/light remote is that the wall switch(es) are not used at all. Basically you always provide power to the fixture via a single hot (the black wire) and of course neutral and ground are connected. That hot does not feed the fan or the light, it feeds the remote receiver which is connected (sometimes factory installed, sometimes as part of the installation process) to the fan and the light with separate wires.
The end result: You only use the remote and so it doesn’t matter whether you have 1, 2 or 3 switches. You leave the switches in an on configuration and then ignore them. Well, more typically you put a piece of tape over each switch that gets yucky and eventually falls off, and then someone flips the switch and messes up the remote control (because without power to the fan/light/remote the remote control does nothing) and then you put on new tape. Lather, rinse repeat.
So you really do absolutely nothing electrically speaking with the existing switches. Technically you could remove one or more of the switches, but then you’d have to install a blank cover plate, which would look strange. Instead you stick on that tape, maybe with “use the remote” written on it.
The ideal setup would be to run new wires/cables to control the fan and light separately, with 3-way/4-way switches to turn fan and light on/off and control the fan speed and dim the light. In reality, due to the expense of doing so, fan manufacturers prefer to just throw in a remote with every fan to make it “easy”. As in “no electrician required in many jurisdictions” + “relatively few returns due to insufficient wiring”.
Of course, that also means you only control the fan/light with one remote. That remote typically sits in a holder next to one of your existing switches. Should it be the switch near the garage for when you come into the house and it is dark? Or should it be the switch near the kitchen for when it is dark and you want to fix a snack and bring into the room? Or should it be near the stairs so that when you are done for the night you can turn off the lights before heading upstairs? With one remote, that is a bit of a problem. You may find that the manufacturer (or 3rd parties) offer replacement remotes, but you may or may not be able to use multiple remotes with one fan.
That’s “progress” for you.