I have a large living room with 9 recessed lights in a 3 X 3 pattern (see crude drawing below)


X X X


X C X


X X X

Currently all are operated from one rotary dimmer switch. What I'd like to do is to replace the center light (C) with a ceiling fan. I don't want to tear into the walls and ceiling to run a separate line and switch to the center light. Instead, I thought it might be feasible to place a dimmer-receiver in line with each of the remaining lights (X) to be run by a table top remote and replace the rotary dimmer switch with a standard on-off switch. This would allow me to still dim the remaining recessed lights without affecting the ceiling fan. I could go an extra step and place a receiver in the ceiling fan to remotely run the fan and associated light kit that could operate from the same transmitter.

Does anyone know if this would work and how to do it?

Thanks
Eric (Joe Squid)

This will not work. You will need to run a new wire from the fan to the light switch. Do you have an attic crawlspace above the room?

Here is the issue...The can lights are run in parallel.

There's no crawl space (unfortunately). The living room is on the ground level and it's a two story house. Guess I'll be tearing into the wall and ceiling...lovely.

Thanks Carl! I didn't think about the fact the lights are in parallel.

Eric

Wait a second.... I agree you will need the new wiring run, but you can do it without significanlty tearing into the walls.

1) get a retro fit ceiling fan hangs rated to hold 70 lb.
2) even with insulation you should be able to run the wire parallel with the joices.
3) where you will have difficulties is in the corner where the ceiling meets the wall. You will have to drill and augh out the corner beam a bit just enough to add clearance for the wire.
4) use a flexible drill bit from the wall switch to where the cable is. You may have to do some blind fishing to make this work.

In the end you will have to only patch the small hole your drilled in the corner. I have done this before and it worked out well for me.

Sure,

What you are asking can work. You may not like the cost though.

The simplest is to use one of these for each can light, and the ceiling fan:

[Link: pulseworx.com]

Then you would need one of these, in place of the existing wall switch:

[Link: pulseworx.com]

The above products are UPB. Sort of like X-10 except the signal level is much higher, and bidirectional, resulting in a very robust system.

The system would be wired so that power was always going to all the fixture modules, and to the wall controller. The wall switch and modules are then programmed, so that for a specific keypress on the switch, you would turn on all the lights (this would likely be done as a scene). A different switch would turn on the fan, another would turn on the light kit on the fan. The UPB controllers are quite nice, they can be programmed to ramp the lights up to a given brightness, and ramp them down. You could even set up different scenes for a "candlelit dinner" and a "family dinner", that had different light levels, and had the state of the fan off for the candlelit dinner. (You don't want to blow out the candles!)

Once you understand how the above works, you can save some cost by using the same fixture module to control several of the lights. This may not be that difficult. You will pull the can lights out of the ceiling which gives access to pull wiring to run them all off a single fixture module. (You can always drill sideways through the joists to get from one bay to another, with a long drill bit. I believe home depot carries the 5' long "fish bits" in their tool area.) You would then only need another fixture module for the fan. Or you could use a single fixture module per joist bay, running either three lights, or two lights. (The joist space with the ceiling fan will only have the two lights.)

I haven't had a use for the fixture modules myself yet, but the other UPB products I've used work great.

Good Luck!

BCF's suggestion would work perfectly, you could also use simply automated's fixture modules to save some cash. I would also suggest PCS's dual channel fixture module made specificly for fan control. Here's a link:

[Link: homeautomationnet.com]

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com

You can also parallel the joists and when you get to where the ceiling and wall meet, you can chisel a half inch channel in those top plates for the wall, run romex in that channel, screw a metal shield over it (so you don't put a nail into that wire later) then drop down to the basement and up to a switch..... assuming, of course, that you have a basement :)

I've known people to channel behind baseboards to do horizontal runs.... and I can't say I'd agree with that one. But channeling at the junction of a wall and ceiling results in the smallest patch job. And how often are you going to be putting a nail or screw in the wall within about 4 inches of the ceiling?