My new house doesn't have a single ceiling fan. I'll probably be getting 5 or 6 over the next few months, with the priority being the bedrooms. Right now I have a box fan on my dresser. The temperature is fine, but I gotta have at least a little bit of airflow!
It looks like only the master bedroom is wired for separate light and fan control. At least I am assuming that's why the 2nd switch does nothing (I checked for switched outlets just to make sure).
So I'm thinking that for most rooms, I need something that goes in the canopy so that the light and fan can be controlled separately. Ideally, I want something that can be completely controlled through Hubitat. Dimmable lights, adjustable fan speed, and adjustable fan direction.
All my current devices are zwave, so Zigbee is probably not a good option. But I am not opposed to wifi as long as it's local control and not reliant on an Internet connection.
If you want to use in-wall dimmers and fan controllers, please be sure to purchase fans with AC motors. These are typically ones with good old fashioned pull chains (which you can not even attach, once they are automated - just set the light to on and the fan speed to high via the stubby chains.)
For rooms with single-gang wall switch boxes, look at Inovelliās offerings for the canopy module + a single-gang dimmer/fan speed controller all-in-one device.
DC based fan motors are another thing altogether. For those, look for models that offer off-the-shelf integration options, like Matter over WiFi. There are no add-on fan controllers for DC based fans that I am aware of. Some folks use RF devices (Broadlink and Bond come to mind) to control these, but there is no feedback to hub typically.
We needed two ceiling fans for the new place last summer. I think everything on Amazon is now DC. Even looking at the local HD it appeared that most were as well.
I went with the Broadlink RM4 pro for controlling them. It was a little bit jinky setting them up and I had to do a couple RMs to enable Alexa control but they work. But you hit the main point that there is no feedback, so no way to confirm that the action was in fact received.
Using Bond is another good option to consider... We just have one older fan, but the native Bond integration with Hubitat has been flawless for me, and I use a labeled Zen32 to intuitively manage it from the wall.
If my HE was down when I needed to mess with the fan, I'd use the Bond app for control. If all that was down, I'd just dust off the fan's original remote. Thankfully neither has ever happened in the years I've had this setup.
I use a Bond to control our two ceiling fans. It works very well once setup. Not having confirmation hasn't been an issue during the several years I have been using it
I found, at least in our 1100 sq ft home, that the placement of the Bond bridge in relation to the HE hub, WiFi router, cable modem and battery backup was critical.
Not sure which of the above devices was interfering with the Bond but I experienced missed commands. Everything is on a couple of wire shelves in a closet in the middle of the house. It took a bit of trial and error to find the spot on the shelf where commands weren't missed. It is not a big issue just something to be aware of.
I did briefly, but the only option is Zigbee or Thread/Matter and I don't have a Thread border router and there's not really any devices that act as one that I plan on getting any time soon.
For the Bond and Broadlink options, I guess it would be best to get fans that have an RF remote and not IR so that just 1, or maybe 2 devices can control all the fans and won't need to get one for each room.
I've yet to try any Matter compatible devices... Maybe I'll try and read up on some reviews of any fans that do Matter over WiFi...
Yeah, ceiling fans are getting a lot harder to automate--and I have a handful that I really want automated.
All the "cool" ones have their own, single remote control that you MUST use. Heaven help you if "the dog eats it".
Thankfully, I was able to get some decent fans with AC motors fairly recently. Hopefully, they last a long time so I don't have to deal with them in the future.
(I have two fans in my loft and one in the room below--when the loft is more than a set number of degrees warmer than the lower floor, I run the fans for up to 20 minutes to help circulate the air. I also have a fan in the main bedroom/computer room that kicks on when it gets too warm)
This may or may not be helpful- but in my case I did all three of our fans with a zen52 that I wired into the light box at the bottom of the fan, so one side was light control and the other fan control. I just leave the pull string switches āonā for light, and at medium for fan speed.
I could have used two zen52s to get full remote speed control; but there is a chance of accidentally powering two speeds at once which I didnāt want to risk; and generally I didnāt have room for two relays in the already tight box. Anyway itās worked well and speed control (for us anyway) hasnāt been a big deal.
I really wanted the inovelli canopy module but as you said - itās been gone in the zwave flavor for a long while. My zen52 solution was intended to be temporary that is now permanent
Fans SUCK!!!
I finally threw in the towel and went with dreo ceiling fans. I control them through home assistant, but if I remember right Alexa, Google, and apple can control them too. I know it's not what your asking but tbh this is probably the worst smart home category to automate.
Make sure you have fan-rated boxes in the ceiling at each location you want to add a fan. (The one location with the apparent switch should have one, but heavy on the should. I'd double-check that one, too.)
I took the approach of AC fans and in-wall switches and dimmers, even in 4 locations where I had to add 2-gang remodel boxes. In the grand scheme of things, I thought it was worth it, but with the proliferation of DC fans today, it may be a different calculus.
I wouldnāt be concerned with DC motor fans that have RF controllers. We have one and Iāve been using an RM 4 Pro to control it for four years. Other than itās light turning on when thereās a power outage, with no way to override that behaviour, itās been absolutely fine. Despite having no feedback that the signal gets there, it always works.
