Hi, I have a big and powerful fan that at max speed makes my house fly away:
but with a dumb dimmer plug i’m able to adjust it to my needs:
Is there any easy, plug and play way to smartify this without soldering or modding? I like to leave the fan at the bare minimum when I sleep and raise it a bit during the day. With the dumb plug all I need to do is leave the fan to max position and adjust the dimmer plug’s little knob
Hi Andrea, are you saying that you are using an external dimmer with your fan?!
AFAIK: it’s not a good idea to use a dimmer to control the current sent to a motor but I’m not 100% sure about that.
Don’t do that unless you want things to catch fire. Dimmer switches are for resistive loads like (incandescent) light bulbs. They are not designed for the inductive loads like a fan motor.
Can You Use A Dimmer Switch On A Ceiling Fan - Heartland Inspections.
Edit: Found the manual for that specific device. It makes it pretty clear that you shouldn’t be using it for a fan
yeah guys but i’m doing this since 11 years day and night 4 months per year and i’m still alive, so I assume it will not catch fire. The fan HAS 3 speed positions so I assume it is already “dimmerable”. The fan is this one:
any suggestion on how to do from HA the same thing I do manually with the knob of the dimmer plug?
I found a Moes dimmer smart plug and on the website they say it is suitable for fans, but the behavior is not so clear and the speed is never the same somehow.
Do NOT attach an induction load (eg an electric motor) to a ‘dimmer’
They are NEVER ‘dimmable’ it can cause a fire. Just because yours hasn’t yet does not mean it is safe
Dimmers modulate voltage while fan controls modulate amperage. You MUST use a fan controller. (you will not find a plug in one, not in the US at least because of code and not plugging in fans to dimmers.)
Fan == fan controller NOT dimmer works differently as to not cause a fire.
Assumptions are the mother of all fuckups…
I also like to discourage you from this approach. I’m a diplommed electrician and I have seen the mess, that such techniques can make, several times.
In that case, cool - you do you.
The only further “advice” I will give you regarding this subject is to ask you to pm me your address. Need to know where to send the flowers once your assumptions prove incorrect.
Quite unlikely with 70W motor.
But likely it’s enough powerful to spread the fire quite rapidly in your house when the shit happens.
so, does it exist on the market some smart fan control that modulate amperage? maybe not a smart plug but something else?
Fan controllers generally work by switching capacitance in and out. There are smart examples. I think sonoff do one.
Point here is that while many AC motors can be controlled with phase cut dimmer (triac), you don’t know internals of your fan motor. Neither you know the onboard speed control circuit. So wiring them in series with dimmer that is not even allowed for motors is 3x no-go. Adding there the fact you are running it while you are sleeping, it becomes 4x.
Good luck.
Put ‘smart ceiling fan controller’ in Amazon. Any of the top 10 are likely what you’re looking for.
Fan controller, yes. DIMMER no…
finally some constructive comment, I will look on sonoff products, thanks
sorry for the wrong words I used, of course my needing is for a fan controller.
By the way MOES sells a smart plug that is officially suitable for fans and I have it in my hands, cons are that is a tuya device and I find it a bit unreliable
internet is full of products like this, officially suitable for fans:
mine is very similar and remains completely cold even after 10 hours, so there is no electrical resistance or heating up
Can I use sonoff iFan4? should it entirely replace the controller of the fan or not?
the controller is “separated” from the fan engine and probably easily removable:
(sorry for the dust, I just retrieved the fan from my cellar)
Solved with Sonoff iFan-04H
Works fine, I simply wired it on top of the original controller (left at maximum speed).
