2 function switch for ceiling fan and light?

Not sure about intent, but it’s designed for ceiling fans as well. Granted, you won’t be able to change the fan speed with this switch, though. Just on and off.

If you look at Inovelli’s discussion of the switch, you’ll see that they’re thinking of ceiling fans as a use case. :grinning:

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@saosinx88 Hurry up. It’s on sale for $27.95.

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@Bry
It’s also twice the price of Zooz. And you have to open the fan to install the wifi module.
https://inovelli.com/shop/smart-light-switches/zwave-smart-switches-gen2/z-wave-fan-light-switch-pre-order/

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That is correct, but my understanding is that the OP only has a two conductor Romex running to his fan. He only has a single switch for both the light and the fan. He now wants a two-in-one switch to individually control both the fan and the light from switches, a function he doesn’t presently have.

The Zooz switch won’t accomplish this. It requires a three-wire to the fan, at least according to this:

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The Inovelli accomplishes this via a 2-wire Romex which the OP has. It does require installing a module in the fan canopy, but that’s what it’s going to take if you want to have two separate functions over a 2-wire Romex.

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@Bry
Indeed. And being only 2 wires it probably does not have neutral at the switch location. That means that nothing, not even Inovelli’s will work.
Wiring has to be traced first.

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Absolutely, The wiring should be fully mapped first to determine what solutions might work.

If you look at the fan FAQ that I linked to In post #3 above, option 5, the Lutron maestro, does not require a neutral at the switch. (Lutron patented engineering.) But it requires a pretty complex installation and multiple devices to get the integration to work.

I don’t think it would be anybody’s first choice if any of the other options were possible, but it is sometimes chosen when nothing else will work. :sunglasses:

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Just ordered 3 of the 30s and 1 of the 22s. Appreciate and the heads up, @NomadTech and thank you @TheSmartestHouse

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Anytime :wink: We hope you enjoy the new switches!

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This new switch/canopy module is specifically being designed for ceiling fans, based on everything I have read about it.

I believe the upcoming Inovelli Fan/Light Switch + Canopy Module will allow full independent control of both the Ceiling FAN and Light, including speed and dimmer level respectively. (Unless they had to drop some of this functionality and I missed the update… :thinking:)

- Push Buttons (Top & Bottom): top button turns on/off lights, bottom button turns on/off fan – both buttons can activate scenes
- Config & Toggle Buttons: buttons can be used to dim up/down lights, increase/decrease fan speed and also be used to configure the switch
- RGB LED Bars: will measure the % of how much the lights are dimmed or the level the fan is on (LED’s should be RGB and should be able to be dimmed in intensity or disabled altogether)

I think Inovelli has a winning upcoming product on their hands, IMHO.

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You cannot control fan speed when motor is single phase 120V AC.
As far as multispeed fans, they do that by connecting various taps of the same AC motor. To control speed for these you can use multiple zwave/zigbee relays.

Hmmmm, my Hampton Bay Fan Controller and Lutron Caseta Fan Controllers would beg to differ with your opinion… :wink:

DC Fans are another story… however traditional AC powered “pull chain adjustable” single phase fans work extremely well with smart fan speed controllers.

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I think you’re both saying the same thing but coming at it from different directions.

You cannot control A single phase motor by simply dimming current like you do with a lightbulb.

But the fan motor can have multiple tap points which will allow for specific set speeds, the typical low/medium/high.

And there are indeed multiple devices available which can control that kind a fan speed from a single device.

You don’t need multiple switches on the wall,or multiple relays, because the controller inside the fan canopy is already wired to allow connections to the different tap points.

So you buy one smart device which connects to the controller to shift between the multiple tap points on the multi speed motor. But it has to be a device designed for that specific purpose.

Hmmmmm… that’s not how the three fan controllers I linked above work, though… These devices are not multi-tap capable devices. They are more like a classic dimmer module as they are simply controlling the amount of power being delivered to the fan motor in order to control speed. How they are limiting/controlling the power being delivered to the fan motor is a good question…but they are indeed doing so, often by simply only replacing the standard on/off manual wall switch. The fan pull-chain is set to the high speed position, and the smart fan controller takes over from there. There is no special wiring to the fan itself.

Both my Lutron and HBFC actually provide 4 different speeds compared to the dumb fan’s standard 3 speeds.

This article provides some clues…

Different kind of “tap.”

They are more like a classic dimmer module as they are simply controlling the amount of power being delivered to the fan motor in order to control speed.

:scream: no, they aren’t. Seriously, they are not anything like a classic dimmer module. The physics is completely different. They are not, repeat not sending power directly to the fan motor in order to control speed. I promise you, they are not.

See the FAQ:

What they are doing is sending different levels of power to the fan controller Which is reading the level received and then selecting the matching tap point and the correct frequency and voltage.

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Understood. I was simply trying to describe the method in which they are wired. It’s not like these fan controllers have an octopus like amount of wiring coming from them to the fan canopy to select various taps.

They are in fact controlling the speed of the fan via a single “load” wire. As I mentioned, the exact circuitry/physics behind this technique is something I am not very familiar with. I would really like to understand the exact theory behind these fan speed controllers. Are they varying the AC voltage being sent to the fan? Are they adjusting a capacitance in the circuit? What are they doing exactly?

See the links in the post just above yours. :sunglasses:

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My guess is they are using the following (from one of your links…) I know the Lutron Caseta Fan controllers always turn the fan on at high speed for about 1-2 seconds to kickstart the motion, even if starting at the lowest speed setting. This aligns with the description below…

FAN DIMMER, or ELECTRONIC FAN SPEED CONTROL: $ 10-20

(Solid state phase angle firing of a triac with additional needed components for inductive load (motor) operation) I’ve seen them with a rotary switch or a slider control. They always turn on at high speed and then adjust to slow. Good ones have a minimum speed adjustment. (If they don’t have a min. speed adjustment they don’t go very slow.) (Get one with a user settable minimum speed adjustment) No solid state dimmer operates real well at real low speeds. Fan dimmer type speed controls are usually rated about 5 amps. Did I say to get one with a minimum speed adjustment??? These controls are quite efficient.

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No, the dual Inovelli is designed as a ceiling light combo. It will allow for multiple ceiling fan speeds.

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My bad, I was thinking of Zooz ZEN 30.

The Inovelli fan/light is a brand new device which is due out this month, it doesn’t look like it has started shipping yet.

Thanks for the correction. I have edited my post above. :sunglasses:

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The Inovelli fan/light combo is/has been shipping. If there is an interest, I would head to the Inovelli Community Forum and review the threads there. The switch is innovative, but like all new things, has a couple kinks to be worked out.

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