I have an indoor ceiling fan that is connected with 3 wire + ground wire. It uses (1) pull chain to control light dimming and (1) pull chain to control fan speed. There is no wireless or control unit mounted to the unit. Its hard wired. I have utilized successfully Leviton WIFI, Leviton Z-Wave and Lutron Caseta to control the device and I’m now upgrading all my switches to Inovelli 2-1 Red Switch (AS THE RED FAN SWITCH) has gone bye bye.
Question: Can I use the Inovelli 2-1 Red Switch to control this fan/ light?
You can use it to control the light, but not the fan. You’ll need to wait for the fan switch (preorder is only Blue Series) to control the speeds. You’ll need a double gang box.
Otherwise you could source the LZW36-SN which has the canopy module that could do both fan and light control.
You can check out the Buy/Sell section of the forum. Maybe post a WTB: message and see if anyone is able to sell you one of their LZW36 models.
Maybe? It’s designed for motor loads (fans) and if you were to power a light bulb, it may function, but probably not well. Dimming would not be supported and may be fine for on/off?
Unfortunately the design of the 2-1 Dimmer Switch and Fan Series have different internals to allow the type of supported loads. The 2-1 dimmer does not support / rated /approved for motor loads. There is talk (if you search) about Inovelli making a canopy to work with the Blue Series switch and/or making a 2 load switch (fan and light) in the future.
So it sounds like you have a 3-wire between the switch box and the fan/light, but at the switch box, only a single slot (gang) is available for both switches. What you can do is use the Blue Fan switch when it’s released. Physically, that will control the fan but wiring the black wire to the load.
For the light, send power unswitched via the red in the switch box. This gives a full time hot to the red conductor in the fan box, which you connect to the light. You can then use the scene capability of the Blue Fan Switch to control the light. If you have a built-in light, you’ll need a smart relay in the canopy. If you have a removable bulb(s), the use a smart bulb(s).
So for example, a single press up would turn on the fan. A double press up would turn on the light.
All the ones I know of have separate Fan and Light controls. (it may be a single-gang unit with two separate control modules). Controlling a motor (inductive load) is different than controlling a light (resistive load) and UL certification has restrictions on this. I’m not aware of any other brand that sells one dimmer which can control a fan and a light. What brand/model are you referring to?
In this setup, the single dimmer will control the fan speed and light level. Since it’s only a single dimmer it cannot control them separately.
Example: If the dimmer is set to 50%, the RPM of the fan is 50% and the light level is 50%. If I want to run the fan only and at any RPM I simply pull the chain on the fan that controls the light to turn it off and the dimmer is utilized to control the fan’s RPM’s. Vice versa, I can pull the chain to turn the fan off and the dimmer will solely control the light level.
Every dimmer I have installed works flawlessly which is Leviton D26HD, Leviton DZ6HD and currently installed Lutron DVRF-6L-WH-R.
I would assume if I installed a VZW31-SN it would function the same as the others? I’m happy to test but only if I’m assured there is no protentional for an electrical hazard.
None of these are rated for motor (inductive) loads. You could use the pull chain to control the speed of the fan (but no switch to turn on/off) and use a dimmer to control the light, but you can not use the VZW31 2-1 Switch to control/dim the fan motor.
As @harjms pointed out, none of those other models you listed are rated (and not UL approved) for motors. They are all made (and certified) for controlling lights, not fans. The Inovelli VZW31-SN is the same way.
If those others are working for you, then it falls in the category of “it is not designed for it but kinda-sorta works”. Will the VZW31-SN function the same as the others? I suspect it might, but I wouldn’t do it with any of them since they are not UL approved for that purpose
I’m willing to test it If I know there isn’t some sort of electrical hazard it would cause?
If the other ‘dimmers’ function I would guess that Inovelli’s red or blue 2-1 would as well. I’ll install next week and report back my results. I say, dollars to donuts, Inovelli’s will function
You may have success. I can tell you my outdoor ceiling fan did not like the switch. It has a built in receiver for wireless remote and when the fan was turned on, the integrated LED would turn on and go through the 3 kelvin colors available without human interaction.
I know others are using it for bath fans with no issue so it’s a your results may vary.
I finally got around to installing the Blue 2-1 switch to control my ceiling fan. Set to dimmer mode and its working perfectly. Thank you for your insight.
Please don’t take my previous comment as an endorsement for that type of use. It is neither UL certified nor approved by the manufacturer. You are at your own risk continuing to use it this way
