Ceiling Fan control via C-Bus

I have about 9 ceiling fans that want to bring under a home automation control application in a bew home I am building. Primarily I am wanting to do this so I can remote control the on off function (Not the speed).

Was wondering how othe people contol a ceiling fan via relay unit?

I was thinking that is most applications the fan speed is likely to be fixed eg it is unliky that in a bedroom you will want to run the unit on maximum. So just setting the speed to the most common speed is likely to carry thr day.

That said what I was thinking was mounting the speed controllers in a less conspicioius place say a robe or walk in robe so you could adjust the speed if desired. Then just turn the power on and or off to the control unit as required.

I am planning to actually use an IR remote control back via a NEO key pad to pick up the IR on off command and then via the NEss M1G switch the C_Bus relay on or off.

Anyone see any holes in what I am suggesting??

Thanks and regards,

Fleetz

 

Hey Fleetz,

Have a look at this:

06-035-1 Ceiling Sweep Fan Control Via C-Bus

Its more about controlling the speed of a ceiling fan using three relay channels, using the capacitors that are usually supplied with the normal wall control for the fans. But it could also be adapted to provide two-speed control using 2 relay channels as well.

Hope this helps

Darpa

 

No problem using relays to control (on/off of) the fans, they are only a tiny load. Since the load is so small you could wire multiple fans per channel, but future flexibility would be compromised.

I also hate the look of the (standard) controllers, and hide them in cupboards, wardrobes, etc. However, I must comment that in the bedroom a good quality (=quiet) fan running at maximum speed is very very nice to lie underneath on a stinking hot summer's night - especially with a water squirter bottle to shoot upwards at the fan every few minutes

One important thing... try to test the fans before purchase. There is a HUGE difference in performance and noise between them. As a general rule the ones with flat blades (ie: wooden) are noisier and definitely don't work as well as those with curved metal blades. Get info from all your friends too.

And go for larger diameter than recommended in each room, a bigger fan can run slower for a given volume of air. I used a 1200mm in our main bedroom 6m x 3.6m and that was NOT really big enough for Sydney. Better to have 2 big fans, running slowly than 1 smaller one running flat out !

Finally, I love having fans under covered exterior areas. I learnt this in Darwin where everyone does it... apart from being very pleasant to sit underneath, the exterior fan gets rid of mosquitos as they don't like moving air ! Only disadvantage is that the fan makes candlelit alfresco dinners a complete and utter disaster....

 

Fleetz,

I added my fan to a dimmer directly and just set the supplied panels to high an put them in the cupboard. The dim function seems to work fine and you can pretty much set any speed you like. I use a DLT but a normal button would work just as fine.

I wrote this in another topic once and alot of people came back and said that you can get some buzzing out of the fan. I bought cheapie fan and did not have any problems but have not tested it on other fans.


Cheers
Glen

 

Ceiling fans

Hey, Im sort of new to Cbus, ive done my courses through clipsal, however it was a while ago and havent had to use it since.

I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction. i have some spare relay channels left and i want to be able to run 2 outside ceiling fans. What is the best method of including this into my home if i want to be able to control both fans together with my colour touch screen. Ive tried reading a few other posts on this matter how ever everyone comes up with a different solution. Initially i thought i would be able to just run a relay channel and be able to control via the cbus touch screen the speed of the fans. after reading some other posts i realised im wrong.

What would be the best method as im wiring my house atm and would like to no what i should do.

Thank you.