ceiling fans? big ass ones?

[wkearney99]

Anyone have a 'Big Ass Fan' brand ceiling fan?
 
I've got a Lutron Radio RA 2 setup and a couple of fans controlled with it.  I'm debating what to put into a few other rooms.  I could, of course, just go with regular fans and the Lutron RA2 controller.  Truth be told the only thing that gets automated with them is a regular daytime turn-off scheduled event to save energy.  Lots of lights and fans get left running, so a 9:30am event kills 'em all.  There's also a 3am event, but that only does lights.  Anyway, that's not entirely relevant to the question I'm asking.
 
I'm intrigued by the BAF devices and wonder if anyone's integrated them with a home automation environment.

 

[tmbrown97]

Been tempted - have a living room with 21' ceilings that would be well suited - but haven't taken that one off yet. 

 

[wkearney99]

It's really been a crapshoot with ceiling fans over the years.  Styles and brand reliabilities have been so random it's been difficult to nail down just what to install.  Finding a style that works is bad enough, but then dealing with something going wrong when it's 12' up on the ceiling just makes it even worse.  
 
So I'm debating whether a BAF might be worth considering.  They're pricey and use their own unique control system (either wired CAT5 or wireless RF).  Before I torment myself with yet another vendor's scheme, I figured it's worth asking here.

 

[Del91574]

Sounds like there's not much that would need to be integrated if set up correctly:
 
http://info.bigassfans.com/senseme-moreinfo
 
http://www.bigassfans.com/senseme/faq/#smartMode
 
Smart mode and then you could control the on/off portion. You could also put the droid platform on a PC and control via that.

 

[mikefamig]

Good question and I'll be watching for responses.
 
I have a three bay garage with a car lift so the ceiling goes all the way up to the rafters and I plan to eventually put at least one large high volume ceiling fan up there to circulate the air up above. Being a garage I do not care as much about aesthetics but want high  volume, long life and am also interested in automating it.
 
I did a little shopping and found that a lot of advertisements don't mention the volume or power consumption. I'll have to take a look at the BAF.
 
Mike.

 

[mikefamig]

I just took a quick look at BAF and the 60" Haiku is a thousand dollar fan. I'd say that is a big ass price.
 
Mike.

 

[wkearney99]

Yeah, they're not cheap.  But at a certain point I'm willing to trade up in price if it buys me enough benefits.  Not having to get up on a ladder when a bearing craps out and starts going tick-tick-tick after 3 months being one example.   
 
The SenseMe stuff sounds interesting, but many of us here know better than to believe it when a product starts making claims about detecting presence.  I don't really care about temperature management in the guest room or gym where I'd like to get some new fans.  That and the main family room.  I've already got HVAC temperature managed pretty well, the fans are more for air movement.  Stuff that attempts to be 'smart' ends up being too smart for it's own good and driving me crazy coming on/off at oddball intervals.  If only because it leads to the wife being annoyed by it and me, in turn.

 

[picta]

We have 6 fans in our house and they are a big part of HA as we do not have AC. They are programmed to do many features that BAFs are claiming to do (breeze, groups, night mode etc.), and also many that BAF won't be able to do (like integration with our radiant heat system).  It was a real challenge to find the right model that not only looks good in the room, but also is easy to automate (most fancy fans have their own boards to control lights/speed and not just on/off for the functions). After 6 years since install all our fans still work great, but my favorite is Atria fan by Casablanca. It is mounted on 15' ceiling, very quiet at all speeds and also energy efficient. It has separate line feed for the fan and the lights, so it was easy to add to HA system.

 

[mikefamig]

I installed a casablanca fan in ~1997 and it runs on low or medium speed 7x24 and is still running strong. I would buy another Casablanca without giving it any thought.
 
Mike.

 

[wkearney99]

And of course the Casablanca model I like is now coming with LED lighting instead of traditional.  Ugh.  I really don't want to start wandering over into the whole LED vs dimmer territory.  
 
That and the DC fans can be somewhat problematic to automate.  Which is understandable as they're designed to be controlled via their own remote, not by line voltage.  
 
You learn to double-check the details when getting devices when you're interested in automating them.  No good comes from trying to do it the other way around.   So if not Casablanca, then who else?
 
Yes, sort of devolving into a generic fan automation conversation, not just about the BAF.

 

[picta]

I wouldn't give up on Casablanca fan before you check its manual and parts list, this is how we chose it as we were looking for the fans that can be controlled by line voltage. But yea, these days it is much more difficult to find "dumb" devices that are high quality but simple enough to automate.
 
You can also take a look at Monte Carlo fans, they are my second favorite brand, but not as well built as the Casablanca ones...

 

[kurtmccaslin]

I installed Emerson brand DC fans in my house.   These fans are extremely quiet and they look fantastic with solid wood blades.   I found out that they store their last setting when the power is switched off.   Therefore, I just installed my UPB switch in snap mode instead of the wall switch that came with the fan.   I can control the on/off from my automation system, but need to use the wireless remote to control the speed.   I normally find a speed that I like on the fan and keep it there for the entire season anyway.   No need to control the speed from my system.   Its not for everybody, but it works for me.

 

[Neurorad]

I'm very interested in your results. After many hours of searching and reading online, we settled last year on a simple pull chain fan that looked nice, but is too small, light kit is too dim, and it's noisy. But, it can be controllled with RA2. We'll replace it with what you end up using. If you could end up with something transitional/contemporary, I'd appreciate it.

Your lighting designer may be able to assist with the light kit. We chose our fan partly based on the light kit appearance and total wattage, but it's way too dim for our great room as the primary light source. I don't want to end up adding more downlights to this space, but all light kits I found are too dim. Maybe a lighting designer could have a special light kit constructed, or knows of commercial options.

 

[wkearney99]

Well, I think a post to the Lutron forum is perhaps in order.  I'm guessing the generic suggestion of a pull chain and manual reverse will be the result.  But I'd like to know a little more.  
 
I swear, it's one step forward, two steps back all the damned time lately.

 

[pete_c]

Here have 5 fans in place.
 
The original electrician here wired power and lighting to the wall switch on all of them.
 
The one in the master bedroom is on a high ceiling and difficult to get to.  I have changed the wireless remote module on it once.  Wireless remote controls fan and lighting. 
 
That said the fan has worked fine and is quiet now for some 13 years. 
 
My home office fan has been on 24/7 now for 13 years.  It is quiet still and looks nice.  This has come up for discussion as the home office is also multiple HVAC vents and is typically at 72 degrees year around.
 
I have never automated any of the fans.  That said I do have combo light / fan control switches in the 4X4 electrical switch boxes boxes with UPB  switches to control the rest of the room lighting.  It is still very tight in boxes and have never had interest in automating the fans.