I have a Whole house fan setup installed that is not automated, the HVAC system is, but not the house fan. It runs off separate countdown timer and fan speed switches. The brand is Quite Cool and I have a two speed fan (I believe the medium speed wire is not used due to the switch though the fan is capable of medium speed.
I would like to have the fan speed and countdown times to be automated as well as a physical switch for those settings. I have searched for this on the forums but did not see anything that fit the bill for what I'm asking. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
I have a QuiteCool system similar to that where I'm using a GE Enbrighten Z-Wave Plus for the on/off portion. In my setup the secondary switch controls the fan speed from low to high, and I use the Auto-Off app in HE to control how long the fan runs.
I've been using this switch for a year or more:
Do I need to change the switch to a fan-rated switch? Sounds like I should from your post. Just wanted to confirm.
FWIW I called the company who installed the system and they said that a "normal" Z-Wave smart switch is fine. They installed my system originally w/a Wemo Z-Wave light switch and that worked fine for a year or two until it went south (Z-Wave connectivity problems due to FW changes, not an electrical problem).
And since I have control of fan speed via a secondary switch, do I need to find a fan control switch that does not attempt to control speed? I was thinking about using this, but it seems to include speed control:
It sounds like it should work - it defaults to high speed, so I would just leave it on that. From product Q&A. I don't see the "Favorite" button referred to at all.
The default speed is high. There is a "favorite" button in the center of the switch that can be programmed for the speed of your choice when that button is pushed, otherwise, the "on" panel of the switch will default to the high speed when pushed. I use my switch with Google Assist and it turns on at the high speed. We normally have Google turn it down a notch to "medium-high". The switch has four speeds. This switch will fit in a normal box, but you'll have to get the placement of switch, wires, and wire nuts just right. Great switch!
Apologies, @norbert.h.davis - I didn't mean to high-jack your thread.
Whole House Fans are bad items to automate with wireless switches. My preference is to use KMTronic Web Relay or similar device and use RIB relays for a wired approach.
Two reasons, wireless is lossy and can miss or miss fire, also a house switch being used can be easily triggered by someone who does not know how to use it.
Whole house fans always need a in-flow and creates a negative pressure in the home. If you have a fireplace flue opened ash will fly out everywhere. If by chance you have a fire going, well you know.....
I would wire up a window or door to be sure it is open before the whole house fan clicks on as a unit.
Likely I don't understand your comment, but just to confirm I am using a wired smart switch to control the fan - the GE Enbrighten Z-Wave+ switch which is wired to the load and controls power to the fan directly.
We don't have any automations that run the fan automatically. We either turn on the fan at the switch itself, or a via GH voice command when we're home. We always make sure to have windows/doors open when we do run the fan - as you note running it w/everything closed is not a good idea. We have a fireplace but haven't had a fire in it in 20 years so not worried about that.
I had thought that I would want to have an automation to warn me if the fan turns on but all the doors and windows are closed, but that's really never come up. However, now that I'm thinking about it again I may go ahead and do that, have a warning spoken by Google Voice and a text sent to myself if the fan starts and we don't have any doors/windows open.
No worries, this is good stuff. You are adding to the information base and that is excellent for those that come later. Much appreciated that you you are chiming in.
No fire place but I was thinking of having contact sensors on all windows and having a rule check for an open window before the fan can turn on. I did still need the fan to operate on manual switches for other family members use (older family members and friends) and incase I sell the house.
Thanks for your forgiving reply. I LOVE my QuietCool fan...a game-changer for managing our home environment. We don't really like the feel of AC so didn't run it very often, and w/the addition of the Quiet Cool fan only need AC on the very hottest days of the year.
I had to add the 20min auto-off automation as ours is quiet enough (intake is down the hall from the family room) that we would forget it's running and leave it on longer than needed.
I love my QuietCool fan as well. Game changer in the NorCal Bay Area environment where there is only 15 days a year you really need AC and we have the cold ocean breeze to cool us off at night.
I called QuietCool and the lady told me to never have the low and high fan control on at the same time so I designed it this way. Its nice in that it only requires a single gang box for the high/off/low switch on your wall so a much cleaner solution. The other stuff (Enerwave 2 switch zwave relay enerwave zwn-rsm2-plus and standard relay are in a box in the attic. It works great. I think the lady was wrong BTW in that you could have low and high on at the same time and it wont hurt the fan but putting this relay in solved that. Still have not added any logic to make sure a window or two is open but that is next and can be done with simple rules. The amount of time the fan is on is just by using rules in WebCore or Rule Engine and you can base it on whatever (temp of house, just straight time, etc)
Edit: just remembered I could not go with the Enerwave as the manual switching changes the relays state on every flip of the manual switch, no matter if turned on or off (kind of like the way a regular 3 way switch works). Went with the Zooz Zen16 relay unit instead as their manual switches are configurable. You can make it turn on the relay only when switched on and turn off the relay when switched off instead of changing the state of the relay on every flip of the switch.
Phew!! (And that's "Phew" not "Pew" - just wanted to confirm I'm not shooting my blaster at anyone. ) Glad to hear it...thanks for taking the time to look things up and confirm.
My point was most folks will tie this into Google Home or Alexa to run on/off switches. or kids kick it by accident, etc. Whole House Fan is a device to use in care, it's not a light. Sort a like having automation for a Gas Fireplace is not allowed by code for good reason. Not saying not to automate or have Z-Wave involved if you want to go that way do it, but be smart on triggering.
I took my z-wave switch out completely and use a KMTronic Web Relay low voltage trigger contact from my system which looks at open windows. RIBs can be installed to control Low then High based on the schematic.
So you have to use an app to control the time the unit is on or how do you do that? If You use the manual switch does the fan just stay on until you shut it off manually or with a smart command?
For manual turn on or zwave turn on, I just use a Rule (WebCore for me since I am a ST refugee) based upon temperature of the house. I have not looked at it for a while since it is winter but it will also have a hard shut off as well after xx amount of minutes not matter what the temp of the house is.
My rule also needs to check if windows are open and it does not currently do that but as we head to summer I will add that as well.
Want to mention as well that I have a typo in the orignal post. I will edit it but I could not use the Enerwave as the manual switch changes the state on every flip of the switch (on or off) so it screwed up my design. Finally went with the Zooz Zen 16 which has three relays but I only used two. That unit works since you can program the manual switch to change on every state change or up only turns on and down only turns off. That is exactly what this design needs.
So I'm thinking of getting at the quiet-cool-qc-cl-4700 whole house fan. I don't care about having a physical switch for it, I'll control it via the app, I just was wondering what relay might work so that I can use the two speed capability? I see above somebody used Enerwave but they also had a relay, which I'm confused on why I would need that. Ideally, I would just connect the relay to the AC cable coming out of the fan.
It was I with the relay . I did that because I called Quietcool to ask them if by accident low and high power was energized at the same time if it would damage the motor. The lady on the phone said yes it would so I added it just in case the zwave dual switch energized both hi and low by accident (anyone using Zwave for any lengh of time knows that can easily happen if you turn a switch off and the message never gets sent to the switch).
I came to find out after I received the fan that there would be no issue if the high and low were energized together. As a matter of fact, I think the high and low leads were twisted together if I remember correctly. LOL
I wish the Zen16 or Zen 17 was out when I designed this because if you add a manual wall switch to the Enerwave device it toggles the fan on/off on every flip of the switch (kind of like a 3 way switch works) For the Wife factor I only wanted the wall switch to turn on the fan if it was flipped up. The Zen 16 & 17 is programmable to do that ('toggle switch' vs 'toggle switch any change') .
For this reason I highly recommend either of the Zooz relays and not Enerwave. Even if you do not use a manual switch with it, it is cost competitive with the Enerwave and is much more feature rich, easier to mount, attach your wiring to, etc.
One concern I have is that I'm planning on putting this in the attic, which the max temp for this says it's 104, and in hot summer days, it will probably get higher than that. Do you think it will be OK or should I try and locate it somewhere else? m
Never even thought of the temp issue in an attic being higher than the relay spec but it certainly exists ! I have two Enerwave relays in my attic right now (whole house fan and attic fan) I just checked their manuals and they also have a 104deg spec. And its over 104 deg now and they work but that does not mean that at some point they will not. My attic fan goes on with a temp switch (sperate from the zwave) at 100deg but the attic will get much hotter than that anyway as it really does not keep up.
Not sure if it is a relay issue or zwave chip issue... Dont want a fire to occur, though. Better to put it in a room or garage. Someplace other than the attic, though that can be difficult sometimes logistically
Thx! I doubt a fire would occur. It probably just wears out the chips in the zwave transponder faster. Typically ICs have a mean time before failure that is spec’d based on temperature. Sometimes (the smarter ones) have built now thermal protection so they cutoff if they get too hot.
I’ll try it in the attic and see how it fares. Thanks again for your help. I should get the fan and the controller in a few weeks. I’ll post it back and let you know how it goes.
Thx!
I LOVE my QuietCool fan...a game-changer for managing our home environment. We don't really like the feel of AC so didn't run it very often, and w/the addition of the Quiet Cool fan only need AC on the very hottest days of the year.
) Glad to hear it...thanks for taking the time to look things up and confirm.
