I’m in the process of changing over all my switches to Inovelli hardware, and now that I’ve (mostly) figured out the process for all my lights, I’m working on fans. I’ve currently got 5 ceiling fans in my house.
A Harbor Breeze Sail Stream that uses a light switch for power on/off, but has a wireless remote to control the lighting module, the 3 fan speeds, and forward/reverse function for heating and cooling.
(Best guess based on the remote) A Britton ceiling fan that uses a light switch for power on/off, but has a wireless remote to control the lighting module and the 3 fan speeds.
A Minka Concept II that uses a light switch for power on/off, but has a wireless remote to control the lighting module, the 3 fan speeds, and forward/reverse function for heating and cooling.
(Best guess based on the remote) Some type of Hampton Bay ceiling fan that uses a light switch for power on/off, but has a wireless remote to control the lighting module and the 3 fan speeds
My question is, what do I need and what should I buy? I want to be able to control each of the fans from the wall with one switch and ideally get rid of the stupid/cheap remotes.
P.S. To anyone listening at Inovelli, it would be awesome to have some video walkthroughs of your products. I know that can be expensive to shoot from a time and resource standpoint, but having a walkthrough of the product, how it works, and how it’s differentiated could be very helpful.
1 - Inovelli fan switches and the fan canopy module are rated for AC fans only. So the first step is identifying the motor type in each of your fans. I made some notes below, but you should not rely on them and do your own research or physically inspect the fan motors.
2 - Fans that have remotes will need to have the remote modules removed/disabled so that the motor is directly controlled by the fan switch or canopy module.
3 - The wiring that you have at the fan switch is important in deciding if you need a fan switch or a canopy module. The possibilities are:
Power to the switch box and a 3-wire to the fan
Power to the switch box and a 2-wire to the fan
Power to the fan box with a 2-wire to the switch box i.e. a non-neutral switch loop
From this link, it appears the fan has an AC motor. You’ll have to remove/disable the remote module. Whether you use a fan switch or the canopy module depends upon your wiring.
Motor type not published (that I could find). You will have to inspect to determine.
You’ll have to research your model if you can determine it. This one has an AC motor, but that doesn’t mean yours does.
According to this, it’s AC. See the other Minka notes.
Couldn’t find published motor specs for Hampton Bay fans.
Hey Bry, thanks so much for your reply. Let’s assume they’re all AC (it looks like I’m going to need to take all of them down to get detailed information on the motor, since really none of them have exterior labels).
From what I can tell, in the wall, all the of the fans that are powered by a simple switch have 2 black wires (line and load) run to them. Like the rest of the wiring in my house, it appears there are neutral wires available, but they’re all grouped together in the back of my electrical box.
I took one of the fans down and for that fan, there were two wires, a black and a white, and a ground wired to the fan. There is a red wire in the box, but it’s capped and empty. Again, assuming all fans are wired the same, what would be the best solution?
So from what I can see, you have an ideal configuration, but I have a question.
Ideally, you will have a 2-wire (ignoring grounds) hot and neutral line coming into the switch box and a 3-wire going out of the switch box to the fan box. This allows for the fan and the light to be switched separately. It appears that is what you have.
For the fan you posted pics about, does it have a light? If it doesn’t, that would explain why the red in the fan box isn’t being used.
The fan does have a light, but the light is not independently controlled from the switch. The switch controls power to the fan as a whole unit, and then the remote controls the individual functions. All of the fans, save for the Minka Air Light which uses the wall control module, operate this way.
Got it. Is the switch next to the fan switch being used? It’s weird that you have a 3-wire in the switch box but no second switch. If that adjacent switch isn’t being used, it can be used to control the light.
Best I can tell, in every bedroom there were 3 switches: one to provide power to the fan, and 2 to provide power to outlets in the room. One of those switches I’m able to verify with a plug tester, but the other I have no idea what it does. However, in each room, one of the plugs has been replaced with a USB/AC combo plug, so I think when the previous owner replaced those plugs, he wired things up in such a way so that the switch would no longer control the plug. Need to verify that with a tone-tester/tracer.
No, the one directly adjacent to the fan switch controls power to a plug that I’m able to test with the plug tester. There are conductors wired to it, but I believe it’s something he wired at the switch. Not 100% sure. From what I can tell, tone-testing at the replaced plug, there’s definitely a strong signal at the switch. Likely, that’s something I need consult an electrician for to confirm, though. This is something of a problem throughout the house, I’ve got probably 5 switches in the bedrooms and in other parts of the house that I’m still trying to figure out where they go or what they do.
As far as the fans, though, you mentioned I have an ideal configuration. What do you recommend here?
When a ceiling fan is wired, electricians will often provide for independent switching of the fan and the light even if the fan to be wired doesn’t have a light. It’s a way of futureproofing. To do this, a 3-wire is run between the switch box and the fan box. (And that’s what you have, from what I can tell.) The way it works is that one conductor is used for the switched fan (usually the black) and a second conductor (usually red), is used for the light. The single neutral is used for both.
Most often when this is done, the switch box will be provisioned with TWO switches, one for the fan and one for the light. They are usually wired on the box side and capped off on the fan side (like your red is) if the fan doesn’t have a light.
I can’t see enough of your switch box to tell if/how your 3-wire is wired. I can see the black of the 3-wire, but not the red. With “normal” wiring, I’d expect to the the red wired to the next switch over. But you seem to think it’s wired to something else. What about the 3rd switch? Do you know what that does? Maybe the previous owner moved the switches around.
I would pull all three switches out away from the box, leaving them wired. Look to see where the red from the 3-wire is connected, if anywhere. I think I see it routing to the right side of the box but I can tell for sure. Maybe post a couple pics.
Hey Bry, I’m really sorry for the confusion. I was working on multiple rooms just realized that the picture of the switches and the fan are of different rooms, which may be adding to the confusion. Attached is a new picture of the “middle bedroom” switches, with everything pulled out from the wall. The fan that I took down is also in the middle room. As I said, all the rooms seem to have fans that behave the same, but from here on out, I’ll stay focused on the middle bedroom.
The switch on the left is the switch that I know controls one of the plugs in that bedroom. I couldn’t remember whether the middle switch or the right switch controlled the fan, so before I reinstalled the fan, I tone-tested them. When the middle switch was on (and the right switch was off), the wires in the fan junction box were hot. When the right switch was on (and the middle switch was off), the wires in the fan junction box were hot. This seems to support your hypothesis that they’re running to the same place?
After reinstalling the fan, the middle switch did not appear to do anything to the fan. The far right switch controlled whether the fan was on or off. The fan’s light, speed, and direction could only be controlled by the remote. Here’s a shot at the underside of the fan, too.
I think you probably have a 3-wire to the fan, but you’re making this way too hard with your tone testing. The black from the far right switch (that I think controls the fan) is going to the 3-wire I have annotated. All you need to do is trace that red from the same 3-wire to see if it’s attached to the middle switch. It probably is, but I can’t trace it from the picture, as the switches aren’t pulled out fully.
So if the black from the right switch and the red from the middle switch (if that’s the case) are attached to the same Romex 3-wire, then unless something really goofy is going on, the other end with all three conductors is at the fan.
You didn’t post the fan box, but I’m going to guess that there is a 3-wire in the box with the red or black capped off. (It’s unclear to me if the middle or right switch operates the fan.)
What’s going on, probably, is that since the fan has a remote module installed, it only needs a single hot. So, the fan box uses either red or black with the other end connected to the switch that presently works for the fan.
Apologies, just trying to provide as much info as I can.
Just to clarify, I did post a picture of the fan junction previously, but I know this thread has gotten really long, and also I’m sure you’ve got more in your head than just my setup, so I’ll repost here. In short, you’re right, the red wire is capped, the black and white wires are what are used to power the fan.
Basically, you were 100% correct, the red wire from the middle switch and black wire from the right switch are part of the same 3-wire which powers the fan. The red wire is unused. The far right switch is what operates the fan.
Okay, so if that is an AC fan you will have to remove or disable the wireless module receiver in the fan. This will allow you to power the fan via the black and the light via the red.
At the switch box, use a fan switch for the fan motor and a 2-1 dimmer (or wait for the Project Vernacular On Off) for the light.
Okay, and with the fan switch, I’ll be able to toggle between off, low, medium, and high, as well as reverse if the fan supports it? If it doesn’t support reverse, what would be the recommendation then? Canopy?
The switch won’t support reverse. Does the fan have a reversing switch on the side of the body? It may not have the fan was designed to be reversed by the remote module.
Only on one of the 5 fans listed above. 3 of the others have a remote that features a reverse control. One fan has a remote that has no indication of whether it reverses or not.
If reverse is just something that isn’t really supported period, I’m not going to be too broken up about it. I hardly ever used the feature. I just wanted to fully explore options with the hardware I already have.
