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Fan remote, light, and addt lights

jwstewar

jwstewar

Active member
We have built a room in the basement for the treadmill, eliptical, and other exercise equipment. We have had a bit of a change of plans since the one wall was done (it was done almost 2 years ago when we did the rest of the basement), we now want to add a ceiling fan to the new exercise area. I have a Hunter fan/light remote left from where we built the house. My question is, can I use this remote to control the lights in this room in addition to the light on the fan? It says the light output is good for 300 watts. If this is doable/legal/up-to-code, I'm assuming I would just have the feed for the additional lights coming out of the box where the fan electrical connections are made. Plan B, is use the existing wall and use the chains (which I hate) to control the fan and fan lights.
 
Jim,
Is this a wireless remote? Or a wall control?
Either way, if you connect the other lights in the room to the wire feeding the fan's light, the other lights will not operate off of the remote. The light control function is built inside the fan and would take some re-wiring inside the fan. I'm assuming the remote communicates with the fan.
 
Here is a link to the manual for the remote. http://www.hunterfan.com/uploadedFiles/Support/Owners_Manuals_and_Parts_Guide/41317.pdf

It is a wireless module. You have a part that replaces the wall switch and then a piece that goes in the electrical connection box where the fans gets wired in. It has a black & white input wires and then black (fan), red (light), white (common) output wires. The fan wires then just connect to this box. Could I just run the wire for the additional can lights to the red output wire of this box as long as I stay under 300 watts total?
 
You are the man Jerry!!! Thank you very much, if you say it is OK, it is OK in my book then. Right I'm going through and putting the outlets in the boxes, but wanted to make sure I was OK for when I got to the ceiling and lights.

You can tell I'm the one wiring this room. There are 10 outlets in a 10x13 room. 2 on a 15 Amp circuit that I put in last year when this was going to be my train room and 8 on 2 20 Amp circuits. Figure the parts are cheap and I'm free, I might as well have plenty of outlets and avoid extension cords. I think there are 6 low-voltage boxes & smurf tube as well.:yum:
 
jwstewar said:
Here is a link to the manual for the remote. http://www.hunterfan.com/uploadedFiles/Support/Owners_Manuals_and_Parts_Guide/41317.pdf

It is a wireless module. You have a part that replaces the wall switch and then a piece that goes in the electrical connection box where the fans gets wired in. It has a black & white input wires and then black (fan), red (light), white (common) output wires. The fan wires then just connect to this box. Could I just run the wire for the additional can lights to the red output wire of this box as long as I stay under 300 watts total?
Click to expand...
I looked at the installation guide and I would not recommend controlling any wiring outside of the fan/light combination. The module is only rated for 300W, which is 5 - 60W bulbs at full throttle. Any load in excess of the rating on the module will overheat the module, which could start a fire in the ceiling. I know that YOU will say thta YOU will not overload the module, but what about the next person? What if someone else in the house goes to replace bulbs and exceeds the 300 W rating? The lighting circuit is rated at 1800W max (presuming that you have separated outlet & lighting circuits), but the module is not.

Put your cans on a rated single pole or dimmer switch and quit trying to Rube Goldberg your home and risking a fire. Your installation directions offer no option to attach any wiring outside of the fan/light wiring. I repeat, you are creating a fire risk is you exceed the rated load. 300W is not much of a load at all.

FWIW, I have been a licensed electrical contractor since the 80's. If you don't believe me, contact the local electrical inspector for your city/town/county, and ask him/her. You are puting your life & property in the hands of strangers on the Internet...not a good plan.
 
Doesn't code require a switched light within 3 ft. of the entrance door to the room if it is separated from the rest of the basement? A remote control would not meet this need. I have one of those remote hunters in the living room and would love to throw it out. I end up using the switches that were installed to turn the fan off and on. Damn remote is too slow for me.
 
muleman said:
Doesn't code require a switched light within 3 ft. of the entrance door to the room if it is separated from the rest of the basement? A remote control would not meet this need. I have one of those remote hunters in the living room and would love to throw it out. I end up using the switches that were installed to turn the fan off and on. Damn remote is too slow for me.
Click to expand...

The "remote" goes in the electrical box to replace the standard toggle switch. It gives you a button to control the brightness of the light and then buttons to control the fan speed.
 
I understand that, and have installed many of those units. They are designed to operate only the fan & light, not any additional load. Please refer to your local electrical inspector for verification. I'm not telling you to believe me, I'm telling you where to get the answer from another professional in teh field.
 
Not doubting you one bit JEV, that is why I asked the best electrical inspector there is and he has responded.:smile: Thank you for taking the time to look and research this and responding. It is always good to get additional insight.

I'm not saying I'm going this route yet as this unit won't work with CFLs and I will probably use those for 3 reasons - eliminate most of the heat from normal floodlights, match the rest of the lights in the basement, and save a bit on electrical cost. So that may make this discussion pointless any way.

FWIW, the fan and lights in this room will be the only thing in this 15-amp. The lights for the storage part of the basement used to also be on this circuit. They are now also on their own 15-amp circuit. 3 sockets on their own circuit - would have been about 180 - 225 watts before with standard incadescents now with CFLs only about 39 watts, but it was easier to do that to break the circuits up that way than it was to try to split the current circuit for these lights.
 
Well the room is finished. Not too bad on my scale, I started it Sept. 19 and finished it Oct 30. Ended up going about as simple with the wiring as can be for the fan and lights. I already had the 14-2 wire single switch ran for the lights that were here. Once I broke out the lights for the current storage area I was down to one light on this switch. I put 4 recessed lights into the drop ceiling using 13-watt CFL floodlights. We then bought a 52" 3 bladed Hunter ceiling fan including a LED light. I red through the manual looking for wattage, but no where did it say. It just say 725 lumens low-wattage.:ermm: The LED light is also not dimmable, so that also negated the use of the remote. Just ran the wire from the last light to the fan and using the chains on the fan to control that fan speed and light. Would have been done sooner, but Lowes nor Menards either one cell a box to use a ceiling fan on a suspended ceiling. Ended up having to order a box from Amazon and that set me behind a week.

Moved the equipment in yesterday. Had to take the handles off the treadmill and lay it on a rug and slide it in on it is side and the had to take the BowFlex apart to get it in. Both were almost 40" wide when assembled. Only a 32" door - that is what is upstairs, figured if I couldn't get it past the first door, it wouldn't do any good to have a bigger door down stairs:w00t2:

Monica then start setting her lights and her back grounds up for her photo studio. We'll probably have to change te bulbs in the recessed lights in that area to better match the color of her studio lights.
 
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