We have a few ceiling fans with RF remotes, and the Bond hub. It's great!
I want to add "proper" wall control, for example on one fan that is on a 3-way circuit. The wall switches control power to the fan, with the RF remote controlling the light and speeds (if the wall switch is on). So I was going to install a Lutron Caseta fan control to replace one of the switches, then cap off the other switch and use a Pico remote.
But the Caseta fan controls are meant for fans with pull chains, and to make this work I would have to remove the control module from the fan (eliminating the benefits of Bond).
So I'm thinking of capping off both switches and just installing a Pico fan control for each, programmed via Hubitat's Bond integration. Does that sound like a good strategy?
An alternate strategy would be to leave both switches in (with the circuit "on") and use Lutron Auroras to control the fan light or perhaps something unrelated.
Does that make sense? I'm new to some of this (but not all).
Providing constant power to the fan is what I did. I had the option to separate the power going to the fan and the light, so I ended-up putting a dimmer on the light as well. The fan can then be controller by a rule, and pico, etc via the Bond hub and the light via the dimmer. (I use a Broadlink Pro, but the principle is the same.)
Sure, that's essentially what I do. I have a Hampton Bay Zigbee Fan Controller in the ceiling fan canopy. It allows independent control of both the fan speed and the light. I hardwired the 120VAC to keep constant power to the fan. I then installed a Lutron Fan Pico and a normal 5 button light Pico in the wall plate. The picos talk to Hubitat, which in turn controls the fan and light via Zigbee. It has worked well for years. The only somewhat flakey component is the Hampton Bay Fan Controller, as it sometimes seems to lose its connection to the Zigbee network, despite having 4 Zigbee repeaters nearby. When it finally dies, I have a replacement canopy unit that is WiFi and uses BOND technology.
My fan replaced a ceiling fixture, so I just had line/load (and available neutral) in the switch box. I also use Bond - works great.
For a while I had the line/load hard-wired and used a Pico at the switch box to talk to Bond - that worked fine.
But it seemed like a waste of available power, so I left the line/load hard-wired, but pigtailed a new line wire from that connection and used the neutral to hook up a Zen32.
We use the big button to toggle the fan light, then the 4 smaller buttons are High, Med, Low and Off for the fan. Holding the Off button also reverses the fan. I programmed the speed-buttons' LEDs to indicate which speed was active. It's been working really well - a nice upgrade from the trusty ol' Pico.
One followup question, by "line/load hard-wired", do you mean just capping off the outlet (the way they tell you to do the "other" switch in a 3-way circuit)?
I just want to know if I'm understanding the terminology correctly.
I just meant that I used a 3-port Wago (equivalent to a wire nut) to connect the line wire, load wire, and then a pigtail to the Z32.
Aside from the ground and a neutral that happened to be junctioning in that box, I had no other wires to deal with there, so if you have other wires (traveler perhaps) and/or multiple line or load wires in your box, then you'll need to manage those accordingly.
If you're not already familiar with doing this kind of stuff, please hire a pro. A smoldering fire in your wall makes for a bad day.
If you're not already familiar with doing this kind of stuff, please hire a pro. A smoldering fire in your wall makes for a bad day.
Thank you. Yes, I've put in switches before, and done that (capping off or whatever you call it when you remove the switch entirely and handle the wires as you mentioned). But yes, if I encounter something I'm not comfortable with, I call in a pro.
