What devices am I proposing to use here that aren’t rated for their tasks? I am very specifically asking whether or not the fan switch is appropriate for this situation. “Should not be used with bulbs” – does this mean it should not be used to electrically dim a bulb, or does it mean it should not be placed in any circuit that contains any bulb of any kind? These are very different.
Okay so the answer here is “no”? As in, the fan switch, even in smart bulb/smart fan mode, should not be used in any circuit that contains both fans and bulbs together?
Hey so in the ticket, there wasn’t any mention of it being a non-neutral setup, so that’s definitely what’s causing the issues here as when no neutral is involved, full power isn’t being applied to the fan.
What you could try to do (again, not recommending you put a 2-1 on the fan as I mentioned in the message), is change parameter 25 to 1 (turns off the non-neutral throttle). However, I also don’t know how this will affect your fan.
My apologies for not probing further in the ticket and asking if this was a neutral or non-neutral setup.
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Does the fan have one or two inputs (one for motor, one for light)?
I could see wiring the fan motor direct to line in the JB (I know I know electrical safety) and the wire the light to the switch.
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There are separate connections for fan and lights, but they are wired together in the box on the same line.
Not your fault, just didn’t provide as much info as I should have. I’ll give your suggestion a try *for now but I’m convinced the real solution here is to just run fan switches instead. – Edit: It did not work. Setting the parameter through ZHA did not appear to have any effect; “read attribute” returned “none” each time, no matter if I set it to 1, 0, Bool.true, or Bool.false. It always returned “none”. Another quirk of ZHA perhaps.
Can you answer whether or not that is the case? i.e. based on what I have described so far, will a fan switch be “rated” for this situation?
Fan switch in smart bulb mode, as a non-neutral “switch” for a fan with light fixtures.
On the circuit is fine since the circuit is everything after the breaker.
My general rule of thumb is if a device is not rated for something, I make sure there is no direct physical connection between the 2. Yes I know technically if you connect line and load to the same screw terminal it’s not going through the switch. However I always take extra precautions if the load isn’t rated for the switch because the last thing I want to deal with if things go bad is an insurance adjuster who disagrees with that theory.
So for example… A regular 2-1 with lights in the fan. Use a wire nut to tie the line and load together so the fan has constant power. Then add another wire into the bundle to power the switch. Set the switch to SBM and bind to the bulbs. You’re to code, no potential insurance issues, and you have control of the bulbs. But this ONLY works when you have neutral at the switch, which is why @Bry has recommended re-wiring at the fan. I’ve never used the fan switch, but if it specifically says not to use it to control lights, I’d look at a way to do a similar approach.
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Indeed, hard-wiring the fan and only running the bulbs through the switch would indeed be a solution. I’m tempted to do it that way, but if I can just buy fan switches instead to avoid pulling down five fans in my apartment…
Need to verify that I can use fan switches first.
So if it was me;
Id rewire at the fan junction box. Tie the fan motor directly to line. This will make power always available at the fan (pull string). You could do the same for the light.
Then I’d rewire the line going to the wall switch to send line and NEUTRAL to the switch. Wire the switch for line and neutral. No load is needed as lights will also have power full time. Use the switch as a controller for your bulbs.
Otherwise you could keep the line going to the switch as is, and set it up for line/load at the wall switch. You’ll most likely need a bypass in this setup though.
Edit: you’ll end up wiring it back as a dumb switch if you move out and take your switches with you.
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This or waiting for the canopy module are the only good answers. The fan should have been directly wired in the first place so the fan could run any time it’s turned on with the pull cord and the lights be switched at the wall. It’s how fans should be installed, not with one switch for both fan and light.
I thought you posted you had neutrals everyone but one location so my first response got it backwards.
Once you wire like this you could just pull the switches and put dumb switches back in if you move. If you put in bypasses you can leave them if you can’t be bothered going into the fan box again.
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No worries, a lesson for both of us I suppose lol.
I spoke with the engineers about this last night and I’m afraid with a non-neutral setup, it’s likely to not work, even with a fan switch.
But let’s back up and visit what you’re trying to accomplish here so we can figure out a better solution (hopefully).
Are you trying to turn on your fan and lights from the same switch?
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I have called the building owner and requested their electrician come in and change the switches to line/neutral instead of line/load. Might be a job they take me up on, might not.
I am not trying to turn anything on.
The goal is to have the fan and lights permanently powered. The fan I control by its pull chain, and the lights I control from Home Assistant. The 2-1 switch just acts as a remote for home assistant.
Ah got it. Yeah I think you will definitely need the neutral wire then. If you don’t end up getting the building owner to run the neutral, let me know and we can work on getting the switch back since it can’t be used. Keep us posted!
If it’s wired so the switch only controls the lights then SBM should work fine, but might need a bypass. It makes it much easier to go switch back to normal bulbs or a normal switch some time in the future.