Hey folks,

I'm about to place an online order and was wondering, which site's got a decent deal (pricewise) on a light switch that will handle the load of a ceiling fan/light combination? I had a simple X10 swtich there and the hum it emitted was awful. I'm also hoping to be able to dim/brighten from the switch and the remote, though I understand the the light will dim along with the ceiling fan speed since they are on the same switch.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,

Brad

I have the same question. Any help would be much appreciated.

Lee

If you "dim" the fan motor it is going to buzz. That's a function of the fan motor. Most fan motors will buzz, a few will not.

The best solution is to run the extra wire and split the fan and light into separate switches. If there's an attic above, or basement below, this is pretty easy to do. You'll end up with a dimmable module on the light and a relay (appliance) module on the fan. Each switch manufacturer offers those switches so you'd pick the ones that match your existing switches.

If you can't access the wall/ceiling to run another wire you can get the same affect by putting in in-line modules such as these:

[Link: smarthome.com]

With these you'd be bypassing the wall switch so you'd replace it will a simple wall mounted transmitter which would control the light and fan as well as any other X10 devices that you might want to control from that location. Here's the wall mounted transmitter:

[Link: smarthome.com]

The cheapest thing to do is to put the whole light/fan combo on a single relay switch. It'll control both the light and fan but won't dim so you won't have any buzzing problems.

Larry...What if you already have an existing box/switch that controls the fan speed. What X10 switch could you use to replace the existing switch and would any switch cause the fan to hum?

I was told that the 2380 switch would work...true?

Any X10 switch that will control the fan's speed will cause the fan to hum. A very few fan motors don't hum but there's no way to reliably know before hand if it'll hum or not.

I use the PCS SS1F/S switch for all my fans. They operate silently, have scene capability, have an excellent high-end look and feel and cause no fan hum. Of course, they don't control the fan speed, either, but that's really not an issue. I set the fan speed at the fan and it's really not an issue.

They have modules that'll do everything short of wiping your butt nowadays, yet no wall swithces that'll control a fan/light combo. I have a wall switch that has a simple switch for the light and a knob to control the fan speed, and I'm stuck with it.

Somebody could make a million bucks if they'd make one of these things X10 compatible.

I too was wondering what to purchase to control my light/ceiling fan combo. Right now I have it hooked to one wall switch that dims and turns on with a knob. When I use the dimmer on it the fan does not hum. Will it hum with any simple x-10 switch i choose to buy when being dimmed?

To prevent humming you'd need one of the switches that does not dim.

Dimmable X10 switches dim electronically by clipping the top and bottom of the A/C wave at reduced voltages. This clipping produces humming in most fan motors. The mechanical switches control the fan speed with a mechanical variable resistor so there's no buzz.