Hello everyone, I have a traditional (US) ceiling fan with a light kit (2 e26 bulbs). The fan has two pull chains, one for the light, the other for the fan (AC, reversible 3 speed). The wall switch is a basic toggle switch with no neutral in the box (just line/load). I am setting my house up in Home Assistant and am trying to use Thread devices where possible. I have a few requirements I am trying to meet and looking to explore my options within the White Series.
Requirements:
lights are dimmable (currently using nanoleaf smart bulbs for this purpose, but open to change)
all three levels of fan speed are available for use
wall switch can at minimum turn the lights on and off (without cutting power to smart bulbs, assuming they are needed to meet #1)
Nice to have (in order of desire):
A) light dimming is controllable at switch
B) light controllable via Home Assistant (via Matter/Thread)
C) fan speed is controllable at switch - less critical than lights, continued use of pull chain off/high/med/low is acceptable
D) fan controllable via Home Assistant (via Matter/Thread)
My current idea is to install the White Series Smart Dimmer (likely with a bypass?). If I understand correctly, I can setup the switch in smart bulb mode, thus the fan/light will always have power. I can then create automatons in Home Assistant to control the smart bulbs (i.e. up toggle pressed, turn on bulbs, down toggle pressed, turn off bulbs). The fan would then be controllable only by the pull chain (off/high/med/low). With this idea, I believe I meet all three of my requirements, but only one nice-to-have (B).
First, would my current idea work? In particular I am wondering if I am correct in understanding that in smart bulb mode, the load will always receive ~120V, thus not impacting the fans operation (i.e. incompatibility of light dimmers with fan motors).
Second, are there any options to help achieve the other nice-to-haves? e.g. using the fan/light canopy, fan switch, etc.
No. You cannot have an inductive load (like a fan) pass through a dimmer switch in any mode. This is because the power will always go through the dimming circuitry which cannot handle motor loads.
Install the fan canopy in the fan, rewire the wires going to the switch to provide a hot and a neutral and then install a dimmer switch with no load as your switch. The dimmer will now work since it has a hot and a neutral. The fan canopy will always be powered. You’ll be able to use scene controls through your hub to use multi tap sequences on the dimmer switch to control both the fan and the light via the canopy if you go with thread. If you’re willing to go with zigbee instead of thread, you’ll be able to directly bind the canopy module to the switch allowing for control without a hub.
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately running a neutral to the switch is more effort than I care to do as it would require extensive plaster work.
Regarding: “You cannot have an inductive load (like a fan) pass through a dimmer switch in any mode.” Would the White Series Smart Fan Switch instead work as I described in my proposed solution?
@rohan 's solution is correct. You are misunderstanding the wiring, however.
When you have a hot/neutral that originate in the fan box and only have a 2-wire going to the switch box (commonly referred to as a switch loop), the solution is to rewire at the fan box to send the hot and neutral to the switch box over the two EXISTING conductors. No “running a neutral to the switch” is required, since you have two conductors (exclusive of the ground) to use for that purpose.
No. When you have a both a light and a fan that need to be powered, neither switch is rated for both types of load. The fan is only rated for inductive and then dimmer is only rated for light loads. The fan canopy is the proper solution.
No, you don’t have any plaster work to do. Since you have a switch loop today, you have 2 wires coming from the fan box to the light switch. One carries the line for the switch and the other carries the load back to the fan. You rewire at the fan box to send the neutral on that second wire instead of the load.
This works because you don’t need the hot to be switched anymore since the canopy module controls the load.
Edit: @Bry beat me to answering and gave a diagram too!
Thank you both! I was too quick to dismiss rohan’s suggestion as my mind immediately went to pulling wires, but your explanations make perfect sense.
Now I need to decide if my stubborn preference for thread is worth the lack of zigbee binding.
I’m new to the smart home concept, but thus far I have a pretty robust thread network but currently have no zigbee devices (this fan is located near my home assistant green, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue to setup).
Thread binding is supported by the hardware, just not by an hub today. So if you’re willing to wait for it indefinitely, it might show up someday lol
For what its worth, this blueprint more or less meets my needs for thread binding:
I’m currently only using it for lights (not lights + fan). That said, I’ll pick up a white series dimmer & canopy module and see how it goes for my current project.
Just one note - that’s using scene controls, not thread binding. If your hub is offline, scene controls don’t work. If thread binding was enabled, the hub is not necessary for the switch to control the canopy.
