#Status monitoring for RF ceiling fans

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

honest estuary
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Hi all! New to HA and having a blast so far setting everything up 🙂

I have a goal of getting my Hunter ceiling fans in my system and being able to treat them as proper entities with HA having full control as well as state recognition. I was able to solve the control portion by integrating the fans via a Broadlink RM4 Pro. After some tinkering, I can now access the full code lists in HA for both ceiling fans and wrote up some scripts to control power to both the fan and fan light as well as adjust the fan speed up and down. Nice!

These hunter fans get power from a single wall switch and then the canopy module controls the fan and light independently via the 433 MHz commands. Obviously, this is nice for control but HA has no way of recognizing the current state of the fan or fan light. I have guests who use the remotes / switch so using fan templates isn't an option for me. My question is - what is the simplest solution to get statuses of the fan into HA? I've seen a lot of people mention using Shelly relays as a power monitor which seems like an attractive option. I'm really inexperienced with relays so I'd like a hardware recommendation (Shelly model) as well as my installation options.

I'm hoping to install a relay at the switch side, but I'm wondering if this is even viable? I'm assuming both the voltage loads for the fan and light are bundled together on the switch side so would I even be able to power monitor the fan and light separately? Or do I need to install two relays in the canopy? Again, hoping for the simplest solution and not having to open up the fan base. Any and all advice would be appreciated 🙂

jaunty aurora
# honest estuary Hi all! New to HA and having a blast so far setting everything up 🙂 I have a g...

using something to monitor the current power consumption is probably the route to take. in this case it doesn't seem like you actually need a "relay" so you could get a power monitoring only device like the "Shelly PM Mini Gen3"

then you can write a helper that gets the consumption
e.g.
if power is 30-35W then fan = low
if power = 50-55w then fan = med
if power = 70-75w then fan = high

without knowing how the setup is wired I cannot really suggest specifics. specially when it comes to a light on it too. it depends if they are wired through the same power source or separate. there are probably solutions to all cases but without knowing its hard to recomend.

also when it comes to power its handy if you include your country as power systems and recomendations change depending on country.

honest estuary
# jaunty aurora using something to monitor the current power consumption is probably the route t...

Appreciate the response! Glad to know I was headed in the right direction. Yes the Shelly PM looks great! This will probably be the route that I take.

The pic is I believe how the fan is wired - with the light and fan power being bundled at the canopy side so a single power cable goes to the switch side.

I'm in the US - I'd love to know if I could accurarely gauge the current of specific scenarios like :

  • no light, fan low speed
  • light, fan low speed
  • no light, fan high speed

and so on... I'm wondering if these ranges have enough distinction to accurately be able to tell the state.

light-fan-same-switch-800x600.png
jaunty aurora
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there may be enough of a power difference between them to tell each combination but theres no real way to tell without tracking it. although if light/fan power are seperate you could use 2 trackers

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this would track the full power of both, but also the tracker would go offline with the switch so you may have to account for it being offline meaning "off"

honest estuary
jaunty aurora
honest estuary
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Gotcha okay that makes sense. I’ll have to confirm but I also believe there’s a neutral bundle in the switch junction box that is currently unused. If there is a neutral connection there - can I install in on the switch side?

jaunty aurora
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sure if you have a neutral at the switch you can put it there instead and have it on the live section instead of the switched live so it will stay on when switch is off (and read 0 hopefully)

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like this

honest estuary
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Awesome! That makes total sense. I'll confirm when I open it up later.

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Thank you for the help 🙂

jaunty aurora