One line two devices?

My bedroom has a ceiling fan and a light. They are connected to a single wall switch.
What I’d like to do is to have two wall switches: one for fan (hopefully speed together) and the other for light (hopefully dimmable), without installing more line.

Currently, the ceiling fan and the light has a single hot wire, which is connected to wall switch directly. wall switch is a dimmer with 3~4 steps. The fan has a small switch to turn on/off fan and light. So I can only turn on one of them.

Hopefully if I can control them with Alexa, it’d be the best.

Is there a product I can easily install and use for this use case?

A device like this one might work in your situation.

But as @anon36505037 said, it would help to understand how your fan/light is wired now. Do you have a wireless receiver module in your fan canopy that gives you independent control of fan and lights with a remote?

Get the Hampton Bay Zigbee module and install it at your light. You can get the remote that looks like a wall switch, too, or run it off of remote. I have the line and load from the old switch in the back of my electrical box. If I ever need to maintain it, I can shut off the power and install a simple switch to do the on/off toggles to re-associate it. I use them on all my ceiling fans. I even have it running an app that turns them on if a room is occupied and the temp goes above a certain point. Planning on getting some motion detectors and using the lux sensor to turn them on if motion is detected between dusk and the time I go to bed.

Thanks for your answer and sorry for asking this, I’m pretty newbie to this area.

#1. Where can I buy the Hampton Bay Zigbee module? (I’d like to find the spec or manual as well)

#2. In case I have that module and wall switch which controls the module, especially for dimmer change, how quickly does it response? Is it noticeable?

#3. If I want to control it using my alexa (1st generation doesn’t look like it’s supporting ZigBee) as well, I need a ZigBee hub (such as ST hub) right? Then how does the communication path look like? Is it Alexa -> Hub -> switch -> module OR Alexa -> Hub -> module <- switch ? If it’s former, how does module change get reflected into switch indicators (if it ever has any indicator)?

Sorry for many questions… but I’d like to make sure I understand how it would work rather I realize that I buy something that doesn’t work as my expectation. Thanks

As far as 1, I got it directly from King of Fans because Home Depot would get a few and sell out quickly.

2: It is just the same as your regular remote control that comes with the module. You have to address all 3 with the dip switches. There was talk that these came out a bit wider than the Decora openings. I installed one a couple weeks ago in a 3-gang switch and used a 3-gang Decora cover without any issues. I wish these would be mains powered but they are battery.

Also, the tip about using a clear dot over the light button is a good one if you want to feel around for the light in the dark. The link for the remote is here: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Universal-Ceiling-Fan-Wireless-Wall-Control-68109/205846346

When I rewired my home, all ceiling lights were placed on the same circuit, away from the wall receptacles. I ran 12-3 from each ceiling box to the wall switch. On the dumb switch and fan, black was mains, white was return for light and red was return for fan. Because resetting this module requires on/off sequences, I tied the black and red together in the wall and left the white open. In the ceiling, I fed the hot to that black wire and the red return to this module. That way, should I ever need to do the on/off sequence, I remove power, temporarily install a normal switch, then restore power and then do my on/offs. This keeps me from having to do it at the panel and do the on/offs for all fans. Once it is fixed, pull the power and remove the switch, and put everything back. These remotes are shallow enough you can leave the wire behind it and wire nut’ed.

3: Yes, you would need a Zigbee device, such as a SmartThings hub for Alexa or Goggle Home to be able to turn on or off the light and fan. Since the modules are AC powered, they also act as Zigbee repeaters. Just make sure at least one is close enough to the hub, and the rest are within range of the others. Zigbee is not as far reaching as Z-Wave or WiFi.

You will need to have the SmartThings (or whatever hub you use) skill in Alexa or whatever Goggle home uses.

When you get your fans joined up with the device handler and the child devices install, you can run a device discover to get Alexa or Google to learn about your new devices. Then, Alexa will know the devices. They will be several new switches. For instance, my living room ceiling fan:

Living Room Ceiling Fan
Living Room Ceiling Fan Light
Living Room Ceiling Fan High
Living Room Ceiling Fan Med-High
Living Room Ceiling Fan Medium
Living Room Ceiling Fan Low
Living Room Cool Breeze

Saying any of those turns on the light or the fan speed. I use “Alexa, turn off Living Room Ceiling Fan” to turn off the fan or “Alexa, turn off Living Room Ceiling Fan Light” to turn off the light. Telling it to turn On any of those does that. Depending on if you have dim-able bulbs and have set the module to know it has dim-able bulbs, you can even ask, “Alexa, dim Living Room Ceiling Fan Light to 50%” and it will.

There is a whole topic about this. I would refer you to this for more information.

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Interesting. Thanks for mentioning that.

I dunno… there’s barely room for the wires under the cowl of the average ceiling fan, let alone adding RF components. And then those cowls are usually metal, capable of blocking RF signal.

That said, I will one day have those fans controllable by ST and Alexa.