Automating Ceiling Fans

[bfisher]

I know there are several threads here about automating fans - and I've done it several times with our older fans (using UPB)... but my wife wants new fans and I'm struggling to find brands that will work for her.

Every new fan we've looked at has a #$%@ remote that seems to be required (I haven't been able to find a way to bypass the remote). Or they don't include the 3 speed pull-chains but instead rely on the wall switch (or remote) to determine their speed.

Does anybody know of any recent brands of ceiling fans that will allow themselves to be automated? I'd like to automate both the light and the fan if possible... and if not that, then just the light.

To automate the light, I just need a fan without a remote. To automate the fan, I need one with distinct speed settings on the fan itself.

Thanks...
Bruce

 

[elcano]

Using a Hunter fan I excluded the lamp from the remote control circuitry and wired it directly to the wall UPB dimmer. However, the fan is controlled via the remote control.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Bruce,

I just went through the same thing about 6 months ago. It took me a while to find one that has separate load wires for the fan and the light. I did find one though at Home Depot. I'll see if I can figure out the brand and report back.

 

[Rupp]

Are the fans RF or IR? If they are IR get an Ocelot and control the fans using a package like HomeSeer.

 

[acdcelectric]

All of the major home stores carry ceiling fans with seperate light and motor switch legs. You just need to look for one where the light kit is a seperate ittem, not already part of the fan. The fan housing will have a second wire that passes through the fan to the bottom housing where the light kit mounts.

Be sure to buy the same brand of fan and light kit as most of them use a proprietary plug connecter to hookup the light kit.

According to Brad over at SAI, you can pick either a single speed or a 3 speed model and use a UFD as a speed controller instead of a UFR, as it is a triac controll I have recently installed UFDs in a clients house as well as my own on a brand of fan that would not operate on a UFR and they are working fine as on/off controls, but I must tell you that I have not tried them as speed controllers and have the dimming funtion disabled. TUFD's have a wattage limit of 300 watts.

You can also operate the ceiling fan on an 1130 swith.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Even if it's RF you may still be able to automate it via a hacked remote. Of course you would have to worry about the range of where you would put it.
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=2215

 

[The Pod]

There is power in numbers. I've contacted both Hampton Bay and Hunter fans sales asking that they look at developing controls for their fans using HA protocols and the responses I got was it would be too expensive that no one would purchase it. They already make RF based remotes (selling for $30+), why can't they just use a Zensys chip and make it work with Z-Wave. Or build a wall switch with Insteon or UPB controls. It seems that neither of these companies have ever heard of these technologies. Maybe if the entire HA community starts contacting them they'll take a serious look at it and we'll finally get a quality 3-speed HA fan controller.

The Pod

 

[bfisher]

thanks for the responses. The last 2 I bought at HD don't look like I can bypass the remote (I've looked but don't see how). Is there an easy way to tell if it can be bypassed?

BSR - the pictures didn't want to work in your link. Thanks though... I hadn't thought of that route. It can be a little risky though (if I break the remote trying to make it work...)

I need to look closer at the UFD and UFR... I'm not sure how I would use them to help - but I will look into it. I'm sure I can find more detals on the web...

I think looking for the fans that have seperate light kits is probably the best/easiest route... makes sense to me and should be easy for my wife too!

thanks!

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

BSR - the pictures didn't want to work in your link. Thanks though... I hadn't thought of that route. It can be a little risky though (if I break the remote trying to make it work...)

If you break the remote you aren't out all that much money are you? Maybe check to see how much a replacement remote is before you start.
I bet your using FireFox which is why the picture links are not working.

 

[rocco]

I bet your using FireFox which is why the picture links are not working.

No, it looks like a DNS problem.

The pages are served from "www.cocoontech.com", whereas the images are served from "cocoontech.com" (without the "www").

From where I am (SoCal), "www.cocoontech.com" resolves, but "cocoontech.com" does not resolve.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

ah, would an addition to the host file help this?

 

[gregoryx]

My dad just installed one of those relatively cheap ($80 or something like that) Hunter light / fans from Home Depot. As mentioned above, it has a separate controller element that sits inside the cover of the fan base and wires directly to the separate leads for the light and fan. In the case of the one he bought, it was actually a separately purchased item. It is the element that controls the voltage to the motor and the light bulbs. I was interested in how it hooked up because it certainly looked like it'd be easy to bypass. Apparently, this particular fan / light combo was designed to work with an old-school wired model and the RF-based setup was just for the case that didn't have that.

I doubt I can find the model, though... but at least you know it's something that Home Depot was carrying as recently as three months ago.

 

[electron]

Someone else reported a similar issue with the images, but the DNS is setup correctly, both www.cocoontech.com and cocoontech.com point to the same ip

 

[rocco]

A couple of hour ago, when I did a NSLOOKUP, "cocoontech.com" came back as a "non-existent host". Now, It gives me the same IP address as "www.cocoontech.com", just as E said it should.

Lo-and-behold. the pictures now show up in BSR's HowTo, whereas they would not earlier.

A temporary hick-up on Verizon's local DNS (4.2.2.1)? It is giving me time-outs on half of the lookups I try.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

A temporary hick-up on Verizon's local DNS (4.2.2.1)? It is giving me time-outs on half of the lookups I try.

Wow, maybe all of those "people" you see in their commercials all the time are on break for the holidays!! :lol: