ceiling fan remote install

[joaks]

Hey guys,

So I have a ceiling fan with a remote in a house my wife and I are purchasing. The remote will only operate the fan for now. We asked for the fan to be repaired so that both the light and the fan could be controlled by the remote (this was part of the list of repairs we wanted for purchase). What we were told is that this is not possible and that only the light OR the fan will operate because there is one wire too few.

I looked online for this issue and it sounds like two wires from the fan should be spliced into a single wire from the house but this seems too simple as someone had already taken a look into the wiring when we requested the repair.

Does anyone have any ideas about this? I will look at the setup next weekend but want to get any parts I may need ahead of time. Aside from the wires I was thinking to just buy a remote kit. It seems like the remote kit might be the way to go if I can have the fan and light set to "on" ahead of time, but I am not sure I can do this. There are no external manual switches on the fan.

 

[dishdude]

That's the easiest thing to do. The receiver gets mounted in the canopy and the remote will independently control the light and fan. They have a version that swaps the light switch out for the remote if you think the remote will be misplaced. There's a few choices for under $50 at Lowes/HD.

 

[cheech279]

I could be wrong, but if the wiring to the fan is only a black, a white and a ground, you're out of luck. You need the extra wire (red) for the light to work independently. Otherwise you're stuck with using the pull chain for the light, if it has a pull chain.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
I could be wrong, but if the wiring to the fan is only a black, a white and a ground, you're out of luck. You need the extra wire (red) for the light to work independently. Otherwise you're stuck with using the pull chain for the light, if it has a pull chain.


You leave the power on all the time, and the receiver provides power to the light and fan independently.

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
I could be wrong, but if the wiring to the fan is only a black, a white and a ground, you're out of luck. You need the extra wire (red) for the light to work independently. Otherwise you're stuck with using the pull chain for the light, if it has a pull chain.


Maybe I imagined this, but I thought I read about a remote that could somehow read the impedance and control light and fan separately even if they're on the same wire.

 

[joaks]

Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
I could be wrong, but if the wiring to the fan is only a black, a white and a ground, you're out of luck. You need the extra wire (red) for the light to work independently. Otherwise you're stuck with using the pull chain for the light, if it has a pull chain.


Do you mean we are out of luck for using the remote at all? There is no pull chain or external switch for the fan or light that I can see.