The traditional ceiling fans with pull cords can be out of date today and not so easy to control. It is a trend for more and more people to wire a ceiling fan with a remote. Remote control can be available as an additional switch to a fan with the wall control or pull cord. And luckily, it is not too difficult to attach a remote control to the original fan by yourself. If you have interest in such a project, Let’s see the steps on how to wire a ceiling fan with a remote.
Something You Need To Know Before Wire A Ceiling Fan With Remote
Although having a fan with remote control seems to be a vogue and can bring you a lot of conveniences, there is still something you should take into account before beginning your project of wiring a ceiling fan with a remote. Decide whether or not to have a remote ceiling fan in your home after learning about its features.
Differences Between Pull Cord, Wall Control, And Remote Control
There are 3 different types of controls for ceiling fans. And the features of these three controllers are different from each other. The wall control is the most reliable and common one, the remote is the most convenient one and the pull cord is the most traditional one.
Remote Control
A remote control brings you a lot of conveniences to control a ceiling fan and can be more versatile. But there is something you should consider before wire a ceiling fan with a remote. The remote can get lost and needs batteries.
Wall Control
The wall control is the most dependable ceiling fan control type. With the wall control, you don’t have to worry about losing your controller. Although it is not so easy to install as the pull cord type, it can tell the fan speed clearly. And it also has a separate light switch.
Pull Cord
A pull cord is a traditional and reliable control type of the three controllers. If a fan comes with a pull cord, you won’t need to do extra work, like wiring the circuit to the wall control. Just install the ceiling fan and you can control it by the pull cord. But it is not suitable for neither the low ceiling nor the high ceiling.
Read More: How To Wire A Bathroom Light And Fan On Separate Switches?
How Does The Remote Control Work?
A receiver should be installed in the fan. And the remote transmitter can send a simple signal to it to make the fan operate. While using the remote, make sure there’s no barrier between the remote control and the ceiling fan. Even a piece of furniture or a wall can affect the remote control. Otherwise, the fan could not receive the signal and will not work.
Do You Need A Remote Fan?
There are three types of controllers for ceiling fans: wall control, remote control, and pull cord. Among these three types of controllers, the remote control is the most convenient one. You can imagine installing a remote ceiling fan in the bedroom and then you can control the speed mode while lying on the bed. That’s really convenient!
However, it can also be a little tricky to wire new circuits in the concrete ceiling with an additional floor above. In this case, you can remove the old fan and use the existing circuits to hook up a new remote ceiling fan. But keep in mind that the ceiling fan is controlled by the only controller. If you wire a wall-control fan with a remote, then you can control it only by the remote. Therefore, maybe it is no need for you to wire with a remote if your fan comes with wall control.
How To Wire A Ceiling Fan With Remote?
Make Clear The Wire Color
It is important for you to know the wiring color of the ceiling fan before installation. You should know what color wire is the wire you need or your installation will fail. And here are they:
- White wire is neutral.
- Green wire is for the ground to prevent power surges.
- If your fan comes with light, the black wire is for the fan and blue wire is for the light.
- Sometimes you can see the red wire and it is run power to the light kit.
Check If The Remote Fits
Most ceiling fan remote comes with a receiver to receive the command from the remote. In this process, you need to find the right place for the fan remote receiver in the existing ceiling fan. Slide the remote receiver into the space above the down rod in the canopy to determine its location. Connect the corresponding wires from the fan to the receiver.
Set The Ceiling Fan Transmitter
The most common remote and receiver speak via Dip Switches. The Dip Switches are very small switches inside the remote and receiver. If your fan could not react quickly when you control it by a remote, maybe the Dip switches inside the remote and receiver do not match. In this case, you need to check the receiver and remote and flip the Dip switches to make the transmitter frequency match. One more possibility is that the batteries in the remote run out.
Extra Problems: Remove Burn-out The Capacitor And Install A New One
First, you need to shop for a new capacitor whose number of wires and microfarad is the same as the old one. Remember to turn off the power before any installation. Then take the old capacitor out from the housing and disassemble it from other wires. Connect the wire nuts and settle the new capacitor.
