Ceiling fan light - want smart switch (mainly for light control)

It's been a while but I'm back looking for a way to control my ceiling lights in bedrooms. We have several fan/light combos. The fans are not smart anything, just regular ones chosen for style by my SO.

I have Lutron switches all over and I love them, but they won't work with the fan/light combo. Honestly, I don't care if the fans are only controllable by the pull string, I just want to control the lights.

Is there anything new that can help with this? I'm not one who will be soldering anything, and maybe I can manage to play with some of the wires either in the gang box or by the fixture. No neutral wires in the switches either :frowning:

Hope you have some ideas...

The Inovelli Red Series Fan + Light Switch (Z-Wave) Might be a good choice, especially if you only have one switch controlling the fan/light combo. It will give you dimming control of the light and fan speed control.

Edit: This is what I am using for the fan/light combos in my bedrooms. I suggest using the custom driver from Inovelli. It is available in HPM.

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thanks will look into this. (sorry maybe noob question, what is HPM?)

-- Looks like this requires a neutral. How hard is it to add a neutral if I don't have one at the switch?

Hubitat Package Manager HPM makes it easy to install and update lots of drivers and apps.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/beta-hubitat-package-manager

As for adding a neutral, you are probably going to have to fish new romex through your walls. Or hire an electrician to rewire the house. I haven't done it before and I don't know how your house is wired, so it is hard to say for sure.

The fan I have came with an IR remote so the fan always had power I just put in smart bulbs and only use the remote for the fan portion but then the smart bulbs can be controlled how ever you wish. Not ideal but it seems to work for us.

Probably would need to have an electrician run new wiring to get the neutral if it's not in the box already. But most newer homes will have a neutral available in the box even if it's not connected to the switch. Look for a white wire.

:bulb: NEW IDEA :bulb:

Tell me if this is a good idea or what the best way to do this...

Since I don't care about controlling the fans, I was thinking, can I just open the switch and connect all the wires inside (forget the term for this, but basically making the switch always on). Then installing smart light bulbs in the fans (I'd have to check if I can find the right sizes for the fans) and using a switch over the connected wires to just control the lights.

  1. Can I do this with a Pico remote so I can keep everything in Lutron?
  2. What are the best smart light bulbs? Will they work with Pico remotes, or is there a better switch for them?

Thoughts? Other ideas? Concerns? Lay it on me...

If you Don’t care about controlling the Fan, then do exactly that. If you already have Caséta and you want to throw in some fan control there then change the switch for a Caséta fan control and then just get a two gang plate and mount the pico flat on the wall with their adapter right next to it. It will look like you have a two gang box even though it’s just one. This is what I have done for our fan downstairs.

I have two other fans with the aforementioned Inovelli LZW36 light and fan controllers. While I like this controller, it’s ability to disconnect from its module and control smart bulbs is lacking at the moment. There is no hold and release for dimming, so that is clunky and it’s slow to respond as a button Controller. If they can speed it up and add hold and release to the dim buttons, then it has very nice features such as the indicators and being able to set them to almost any color and pulse to identify different states around your house like doors unlocked, etc.

However since the Inovelli require a separate module installed in the fan canopy, the Caséta is a much easier fan controller to install. But you said you don’t care about fan controllers so your idea is perfect and exactly what I’ve done in many locations around my home. Picos are the best solution for a home in my opinion. They’re durable, capable, reliable, long lasting and they look nice

thanks - and what smart bulbs do you recommend?

I'm a fan of Hue on a Hue Bridge connected via the Hue Integration.

Yes you can use PICO with any smart bulb that connects to the hub. I used Advanced Button Controller to map the buttons on the PICO. I have it working with Hue bulbs and Echsmart bulbs.