Dimmer switch on a ceilling fan controlled at one wall switch

It depends how it's wired. If there are 4 wires going up to the unit then the fan is completely independent of the light and you can dim the light without the fan ever knowing it. If there are 3 wires then if you put on a dimmer the fan motor will buzz like crazy. I would swap in a new dimmer (the low watt ones are cheap, coupla bucks) and see if your fan buzzes. If it does, then pull out the dimmer and replace it with a wall switch while you consider what to do.

I had a 3-wire fan/light fixture which was undimmable. I replaced the fixture with one which is designed to work with 3 wires and be dimmable. (The dimmer control works like a TV remote and the dimmer itself is built into the unit.)

Grant

CME wrote:

Light dimmers do not handle inductive (motor) loads well. Short of rewiring, there are wireless control units available. One unit replaces the wall switch, and the other is wired ahead of the fan and lights. One "advantage" to these is that a handheld remote can also be used to control the light and fan.

DON'T DO IT.

Use capacitors to slow down a motor....that's what is in most fans.....low, med, high

if you never run the fan, just remove the drop string, done.

one method i use and DON'T recomend is to wire the light to the hot in the ceiling box and control it with the fan. then swap out the wall sw for a fan control sw. you need to know what you are doing and it may not meet code but allows seperate controls on a single existing lighting circuit. this method assumes the house was properly wired and the existing wall sw is on the neutral line. --Loren

Perhaps in higher-speed fans, like the window-mounted units, or it might be selecting three different windings with the same capacitor, each (except perhaps for the fastest) underpowered, so the speed is limited by the slip rate.

Not in two of the (older) ceiling fans in this house. They are Hunter ones designed with an inverted rotor with three sets of windings, each with a different number of poles to select the speeds. Both of these use pull-chains to select the speeds.

One of them also has a light fixture mounted coaxially with the fan spindle, and that is controlled by a separate wall switch. The hot wire for the light just passes through the center of the fan hub, without connecting to anything on the fan itself. (It also had a pull-chain for the light, which has been removed, since the wall switch is more convenient.

Enjoy, DoN.

"CME" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Some fans are designed to work with a speed contol, but i have never seen one with an additional fan speed pull cord, so your fan is most likely not speed control compatible. Replace the Dimmer with a SPST switch. The dimmer will not take the motor loads.

Off topic? Never stops anyone else... ;-)

If you turn the dimmer off, does the fan still work? If it does not, it is wired through the dimmer also, and normal dimmers will not function long with a motor load connected. Remove the dimmer and put in a regular toggle switch, or sooner or later someone will ttry dimming the fan and blow the transistor in the dimmer.

To use a wall control like that, you need to satisfy these requirements:

1 - The wiring between the fan and the wall switch location needs to be 3-wire (Light Hot, Fan Hot, Neutral, plus Ground) - either Romex or conduit will do. And if you're rewiring, a 20A circuit must stay 12 GA all the way to the ceiling box, no fair dropping to 14 GA. 2 - The fan section and the light section leads coming up the fan stem need to be wired to the two seperate leads at the ceiling box. 3.- The fan needs to be compatible with a speed control - most are, but read the instructions to be sure, some brands (like Hunter) require you to use their own brand of speed controls. When you hook up the control, set the fan's switch to the highest speed and remove the string (or chain extension) from the fan speed pull-switch so people don't change it accidentally. 4 - You need a compatible dimmer/fan speed control on the wall like the generic (number off the top of my head) Lutron S2-LF. 5 - You need to watch the light kit, most of those split controls only have a 300W light dimmer section. Some people like to put big lamps in their fan (or hook some can lights and track lights to the same control), and the dimmer section of the fan control won't live long.

(Oh, and the ceiling box needs to be one of the heavy-duty ones that is UL rated for use with ceiling fans, so you don't end up with a fan on your head.)

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