ZigBee Fan Switch | Project Zephyr (Blue Series)

Question for you - if the pull string for On/Off is set to On, does your light switch still turn it off?

I’m assuming yes, but just wanted to make sure.

Yep and I currently have the old on/off red series attached to them which works great to turn on/off. I just don’t have control over the speed

That is going to depend upon where your power originates. If it originates in the switch box, then this switch will work with your AC fans.

If power originates at the fan box, then it depends upon if you have a 2-wire or 3-wire between the switch box and the fan box. If it is a 3-wire then this switch will work. If it is a 2-wire, then it won’t and you will need the upcoming canopy module.

Ideally, your fan boxes would have a red/black/white/ground so you could use the red back at the wall box to control the lights using a separate dimmer. But if they don’t, consider the following as a work around - In the case of combination fan/lights, the lights have their own power connection line. Wire that direct to the HOT power line that is coming from the wall box and is also connected to the canopy module HOT line - thus, the lights are always powered. Then use Smart bulbs in the fan. It isn’t exactly what you want, but it will let you control the bulbs separately. If you use Hubitat, HomeAssistant, or another similar hub, a bit more advanced would be to put a spare dimmer or other controller in the wall box with the load contact left unwired, and then use its reported on/off/brightness to then control the smart bulbs.

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I’m ordering some blue 2-in-1 switches and blue fan switches, but we’ll need the light almond paddles. Based on the earlier posts in this thread, it sounds like the paddles for the fan switches are different, even though they look identical on the front of the switch.

The main site lets me pre-order the blue fan switches, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to pre-order the fan switch paddles. Am I missing something or are those going to be available later?

Part of me thinks using the white switches for the fans may be a good way to indicate which switch is for the fan! :slight_smile:

Thanks everyone for all of the great info in this thread. I preordered a Project Zephyr switch back in April thinking it would work with my fan, but based on the info in this thread it sounds like that may not be the case?

My room has a wall switch that connects to a single ceiling fan with two pull strings. One controls the light in the fan, the other controls the fan speed.

If the fan didn’t have a light, it sounds like Project Zephyr would work perfectly. But since it does it sounds like it won’t work and I’ll have to use a combination of Project Walt and Project Cheryl instead?

I never use the light, so would Project Zephyr still work for my fan if I permanently left the string for the light powered off and the string for the fan at maximum? Or do I need to cancel my pre-order either way and wait for the other two devices?

I also have a second fan which has no light, but it does have a remote. That one would also require Project Walt and Project Cheryl to work, right?

Yes it will work fine for that. And depending on the wiring you could still have the light switched on/off via the pull string but not via the wall switch

So since you have a single wall switch for a fan/light combo, my guess would be that you only have two conductors (i.e. a 2-wire Romex or equivalent) between the switch and the fan? If that is the case, the question is where does the power originate?

It’s possible that it originates in the switch box, in which case a hot and neutral is sent to the fan. In this configuration, the Zephyr would work with your fan. I’d recommend that you physically unwire the light from the fan as I’m not sure what would happen if someone accidentally turned on the light. I’d error on the side of caution.

OTOH, if the power originates at the fan, then you have a switch loop and the Zephyr will work as a non-neutral, but with limitations. See my comments in a post below. (Edited)

The quickest thing to do is pull the fan switch and see how many conductors are in that box.

Post the make and model. You need to determine the motor type before that question can be answered.

You’re the wiring guru, so you certainly know better than I do. But since the Zephyr supports non-neutral wiring, why wouldn’t it work in a switch loop? :thinking:

Does it? The non-neutral specification in the first post has been crossed out so I was thinking it didn’t get implemented. I have only tested mine with a neutral. If that got put back in, I missed that memo.

But you would be correct if that is the case.

Edit: see below and fixing my response above.

So I checked and this switch will support a non-neutral with limitations. Only low and medium speeds are available. If you have a three-way configuration, you need to use an Aux. AC ceiling fan’s only in the non-neutral configuration. Exhaust fans will not work with a non-neutral.

So if your power originates at the fan box and you have a switch loop, the switch will work but you will be limited to low and medium speeds.

Thank you both! This is good to know. I’d rather have all three speeds, so I’ll have to unwire the switch and confirm where the power originates so I can confirm that the Zephyr will work.

Post the make and model. You need to determine the motor type before that question can be answered.

The first fan (with the light) is a Home Decorators Collection Windward IV 52" (model number 26661), and the second (without a light) is a Home Decorators Collection Altura 56" (model number ‎672000).

While researching the model numbers, I discovered that the first fan (with the light) may have originally come with a remote (unless there’s an identical version without a remote). The previous homeowners didn’t give me one, but it’s possible it was lost? If so, I wonder if it would be easier to just install a Blue 2-in-1 switch in smart bulb mode so it’s outputting constant power? I could then program the Blue 2-in-1 to control the speed/light via Home Assistant and an RF transmitter.

Home Decorators Collection Windward IV 52" (model number 26661 . I looked through the documentation and didn’t see anything definitive regarding the motor type. I’m sure others will take a look as it’s possible I missed it. It’s an older fan (preferring CFL bulbs vs LED in the manual) so it may very well have an AC motor. If it does, it’s just a simple removing of the remote module in the canopy.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Decorators-Collection-Altura-56-in-Indoor-Oil-Rubbed-Bronze-Ceiling-Fan-with-Downrod-Remote-and-Reversible-Motor-Light-Kit-Adaptable-26655/204749492?mtc=SEM-BF-CDP-GGL-D27-027_020_CEILING_FANS-NA-NA-NA-DSA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-CEILING_FANS_Feed_New&cm_mmc=SEM-BF-CDP-GGL-D27-027_020_CEILING_FANS-NA-NA-NA-DSA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-CEILING_FANS_Feed_New-71700000091698925-58700007722300441-39700072808565127&gclid=CjwKCAjwjOunBhB4EiwA94JWsF13_uO48HjxkDjm-NzBD1RjWd3Bs_WIx6NIXXJJYhsAakQnbK2MZhoC_6kQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Same thing for this one.

Coming back to this, because I’m still a little confused on the fan speed control.

My current setup is a red series on/off that controls my single pull string, no light AC fans. I have the ability to turn these on/off but to change speed I need to go to the physical pull string.

This blue series will instead offer the ability to control the fan speed directly from the paddle as long as my power originates from the switch box? If so, how does it do this? Thank you so much and sorry for all the questions. Trying to figure out what product will suite my needs best.

Yes

You set the pull switch to HI speed. That will essentially route the wiring straight through to the motor (bypassing the fan’s internal speed control) Then, the Blue Fan Switch will control the power sent to the fan motor

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Wow had no idea this was possible. @Eric_Inovelli I’m not sure if the marketing or info on the switches makes this clear enough or if it does I didn’t see it. Was not initially going to pick these up but if this is the case, I’ll be ordering a bunch. Thanks @mamber !

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I also have Altura fans. In the ones I have (about 7 or 8 years old, don’t know if anything has changed), the fan control electronics are located in the dome part below the fan (i.e., the lowest section, closest to room), not in the ceiling electric box. It also has a special plastic connector (9 pins as I recall), and does a reverse function. It looks like what you see here: Amazon.com . I don’t think there is anything else compatible (maybe the Bond remote system - not sure about that). They were not compatible with the older Z-wave controller, the LZW36 (maybe someone could figure out how to rewire that 9-pin connector and place the control in the ceiling box, but it was more trouble that I was going to go through)

Seems like this solves a lot of unique use cases. Want to confirm it works for mine. Probably should have asked before preordering a handful of them months ago.

Our ceiling fans all have lights. The fan and lights have their own switch. The light will only turn on if both switches are on. It’s like the fan switch gives power to the whole unit and the light switch then just changes the light. Hunter said this is intentional as most people leave the switch on and use the remote. Seems a little strange to me.

With this, I’d be able to run constant power to the unit through this switch in “fan mode” and just set the fan to turn on and off by integrating the switch action with SmartThings? I already have the fans on ST, so would just need the switch to trigger an action without changing the power to the unit.

They’re all “Hunter Aerodyne 52 in. Indoor Smart Ceiling Fan”

Really appreciate any insight. It’s been a journey.

Your fan has an AC motor, but it has a built-in (according to Hunter) WiFi module to control the speed and light. You have two switches that individually, albeit awkwardly, control the fan and light. I am presuming these are switches in at least a two-gang box, meaning they are side by side and not two switches in one position.

The good thing is that the fan has separate connections for the switched hot for the fan and the switched hot for the light. So I am guessing in your switch box you have a 3-wire (or maybe two 2-wires)(presuming you have Romex) running to the fan.

So you should be able to use 2 Inovellis to control the fan and light separately, rewiring to get rid of that weird wiring configuration. You’ll use the fan switch for the fan, but because of the WiFi module, you’ll need to put it in the On/Off mode. You can use any Inovelli light switch for the light.

The unknown here is if the WiFi module will get in the way at all. You are presently using two on-off switches (I think) that are working properly and the Inovellis will replicate that. If that module doesn’t get in the way and the bulbs are dimmable, an Inovelli dimmer should be able to dim the bulbs if that’s what you want. Or worst case, set the switch to the on-off mode and use the remote to dim it.

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