Lutron Maestro Fan Control

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1

I am outfitting house with Lutron Caseta ... but I am trying to figure out what the best route is for fan control. So many topics that spiral I am finding it hard to make an informed choice.

I know that Maestro is outside of the Caseta world .. but would the Lutron Maestro fan kit be a good option to use?

Currently in multiple rooms there is a 3 gang switches.

1 switch is a round dimmer for ceiling lights
1 switch is for the light
1 switch is for the power to the fan (ie turn it off then nothing works).

I would like to avoid drywall repair work because I think I can handle the whole thing with 2 lutron switches.

1 lutron caseta in wall dimmer (for ceiling lights)
1 lutron maestro for fan and fan light.

Will I be able to control the fan from hubitat RM? I'm very confused on caseta and maestro .. I don't care if I can't control in the lutron app. I just want to be able to control my "lutron" switches from hubitat RM.

2

In short, no, Maestro will not work for your purposes. Caséta control works on Hubitat by way of the Hubitat hub speaking telnet over your LAN to the Lutron Smart Bridge Pro, to which your Caséta products are paired. One of the differences between Caséta and Maestro (many products of which are visually similar) is that the Caséta products can pair to the bridge, where as the Maestro ones cannot. (I think some Maestro products can pair to a Pico remote, which can also be paired to the Bridge, but I don't think the Pico can be paired to both at the same time, nor would it be able to relay commands from Hubitat, so that won't work either...just thinking out loud in case anyone had the same thought.) tl;dr if you can't see it in the Lutron app, Hubitat won't be able to communicate with it, either.

Is there a reason you prefer Maestro? I assume it's because you were planning on using the Maestro switch that's the same size as one standard decorator switch but has two buttons, one each for the fan and dimmable lights. There is unfortunately nothing in the Caséta line like that. It does, however, require separate wiring for the fan and lights, so if that's what you have anyway, a third switch in your would-be-unused gang would also work. But I am a bit confused about your current wiring: one switch controls just the light kit on the fan, and the other controls both the entirety of both the fan itself and the light kit? That's...odd. I'd see what your wiring really does. If you don't truly have separate wiring for both, there are also options like the Hampton Bay/King of Fans ZigBee controller you can mount in the canopy of a downrod fan (you could then use any button device in Hubitat to control it--say, a Pico paired with the Lutron bridge that you mount in a standard wall plate but isn't wired to anything). If you do have separate wiring, GE makes an in-wall fan controller that requires a neutral, or you could maybe use a Caséta switch that doesn't (but I'm not sure if they are designed to work with fans--definitely not the dimmer, but even the on/off variety that presumably make up for the lack of neutral by leaking some current through the line wire).

3

If you need fan controllers you need to go with Lutron's RA 2 select system. Not to be confused with their regular RA 2 product. As of a couple of months ago you could not ad a fan controller to Caseta. The thing that sucks about going RA 2 select over Caseta is that the switches and dimmers are about double the price of Caseta but if you need fan controllers you have to go RA 2 select or the RA 2 system. I researched Lutron pretty extensively and almost went with this system for my house. I ultimately decided to just go with the new Homeseer WD 200 switches instead. Homeseer also just released their fan controllers as well.

4

As others have said Maestro won’t work with Caseta. I personally have many GE Zwave Fan control switches in my home to control fans. They work great for fans that have separate wires for light on a fan and fan motor. I do have one fan with a sing,e power that I am using the Hampton Bay/King of Fans Zigbee controller. All work great.

5

Ok to clarify my wiring:

Left switch power to FAN
If switch is off the remote doesn't work, If switch is on I can change the fan speeds with remote

Middle switch power to fan LIGHT
If switch is off, remote doesn't work. If switch is on and I turn the light off with the remote then I can't control the light with the switch - if remote turned light off then I can't turn it on with the switch. But if switch is on I can't turn it on with the remote.

Right switch power to ceiling dimmers
This is just the recessed lights in the ceiling nothing to do with fan - so I will put a caseta dimmer in there.

I purchased GE Zwave plus Smart fan control (Fan only).

So
LEFT switch - GE Zwave smart fan control
MIDDLE switch Lutron Caseta Dimmer
RIGHT switch Lutron Caseta Dimmer

Would that be the correct setup? I want the fan light and the ceiling lights to be on different dimmers.

Just trying to make it all work right.

-- or --

Should I just put 1 caseta dimmer on the ceiling lights (RIGHT) and leave the other two (LEFT / MIDDLE) like they are (they won't be used much). then how do I get a gang plate for 2 manual switches and 1 caseta dimmer? (This would be the preferred way of doing it - cheaper, easier). I just can't find a gang plate. (Part of me wants to be able to control the fan and fan light from Hubitat and then when Google Home is available be able to extend that to voice).

6

It sounds like you fan is designed to be controlled by an existing remote control (either IR or RF), correct? These fans can be a little more troublesome to get to work with smart switches. Fans with pull-chains are usually easier to integrate. I added a Hampton Bay Zigbee Fan controller to the canopy of my simple ceiling fan, which has been working well for my. I actually use a Lutron Pico Remote to control the fan and light through Hubitat. The Pico remote is installed in the wall-plate on the wall, alongside other switches.

For fans that came with a remote control, I believe some users have added additional hardware (like Bond) that can 'speak RF' to the fan, basically imitating the OEM remote control. I don't have any experience with those devices, but I am sure you'll find references to them if you search the forums (like the one below.)

https://community.hubitat.com/t/compatible-devices-list/113/469?u=ogiewon

It is usually simpler to replace all of the switches to the Decora (i.e. paddle) style of switches and then get a new faceplate that matches. I have slowly been replacing all of my toggle style switches with a combination of manual and smart decora style switches.

Note: Replacing a manual toggle switch with a manual decora switch is only a few dollars at Home Depot or Lowes.

7

Many of us have faced this problem, obviously. I had a ceiling fan that I very much wanted to control with Hubitat, and I got the Maestro fan controller for it. What I did was bury an Aeon Micro Switch behind the fan controller. Effectively, this gave me a way to turn the fan on and off through Hubitat automations. Doing this meant that the Aeon had to be on to adjust the fan. This particular fan was always at one speed, so that wasn't really an issue. It worked for my needs, but is obviously not a complete solution. I wanted the Maestro controller for uniform look with the Caséta devices in the same wall plate, and elsewhere in that condo.

(I sold the condo about a year ago, leaving a running Hubitat system behind. The new owner took my brief set of instructions, and figured out the whole system on his own. It ran without interruption or update for about 10 months. He finally contacted me when one Zigbee motion sensor needed a new battery, and it wouldn't rejoin. I told him what to do, but he reported that it just started working on its own. He's a happy camper.)