Smart thermostats. Smart light bulbs. I’m sure you’ve heard of these innovative products before. But smart ceiling fans? Yes, even fans are becoming smart and contribute to your home’s overall climate control.
Though ceiling fans obviously offer limited cooling relief, they can do so at a much cheaper price point. A central air conditioning system consumes 3 kiloWatts, which is about 36 cents per hour, while running a fan only runs at 30 Watts, equivalent to only a cent per hour.
Now, you don’t have to choose between the two. Using an air conditioner and fan in tandem beats the heat better and can keep your energy costs down. It’s recommended that you run your AC and ceiling fan at the same time. To do this efficiently, you’ll need the help of smart ceiling fans.
What is a smart ceiling fan?
Think of it as your regular ceiling fan that knows when to spin itself. Like smart thermostats, they can be remotely controlled and can be programmed to switch on depending on the preset temperatures and schedules. They can even be linked to your smart thermostats like Nest or Ecobee.
Why your need smart ceiling fans
Smart ceiling fans may sound like a splurge purchase, but they actually help with your home’s indoor climate control and keep your electricity bill down. Running a ceiling fan on cue helps circulate the cool air in a room, enabling you to operate your AC several degrees higher without experiencing discomfort. And for every degree raised, you are saving the “on” cycles of your AC compressor by 10%, reducing your total energy consumption.
How to install smart ceiling fans
You can readily buy sensor-equipped smart ceiling fans, but surprise, surprise — you can transform your old ceiling fans (even the pull chain ones!) with smart fan control switches.
While the app-enabled ceiling fans can be installed quickly, re-purposing your non-smart ceiling fans may take a while since you need to have the basic knowledge of your house wiring. Some switches can be used to replace your existing fan’s in-wall switches as well. There are even some easy ones that you can just plug and place in front of your fan’s remote control to work.
How much do smart ceiling fans cost?
As for the switches, you can get them from anywhere between $50 to $100. The smart ceiling fans are relatively more expensive, ranging from $300 to $1000.
Related: How to Beat the Heat in Your Home With Smart Home Devices
The Best Smart Ceiling Fans – 2018
Ready to check out which smart fan is the best for your home? Browse the best below.
1. Haiku Ceiling Fans: Best of the Best
If you’ve built your smart home around Alexa, you’ll love the Haiku Smart Ceiling Fans.
The best set of modern-looking ceiling fans that can be automated comes from Haiku. Haiku smart ceiling fans are the most versatile and most stylish. Having received 75 international design awards, they have a ceiling fan for anyone’s liking.
Let’s start with the L-series, pictured above. It’s the series with an iconic design, excellent price point and will surly upgrade the look of any indoor space. It also features LED lighting with 16 unique brightness levels. And since it works with Amazon’s Alexa, you can control is with your voice from anywhere. The Haiku is also compatible with our favorite smart thermostats, the Nest and Ecobee, so you can control your home’s temperature for mildly warm times without using your AC right away.
Aside from the L-series, Haiku also have the H series and I series. They mainly differ in available sizes and design finish.
What Users Are Saying
Scoring 4.4 stars on Amazon, the Haiku Home L Series fan is impressing its buyers. You could say that it’s well worth its price tag and that they are happy with what they’ve got. It’s well constructed, good-looking, and works quietly.
Read reviews of the Haiku Home L Series Ceiling Fan on Amazon!
Why You Should Get It
This smart ceiling fan from Haiku is for the smart home enthusiast with taste and who, at the same time, doesn’t want to compromise functionality and quality. It’s the complete package, coming from the first brand to provide smart fans in the market. It’s also for the design-particular homeowner as each series has a variety of color and style finish.
Pros
- Works with Amazon Alexa and controlled by IR remote
- Suitable for indoor spaces
- Energy efficient, exceeds energy Start requirements by 450%
- Integrated LED lights with 16 different brightness levels
- Available in a variety of colors and texture styles
Cons
- App is a little buggy, but customer service is helpful
2. Hunter Ceiling Fans: Best for Apple HomeKit
Only Apple HomeKit-compatible smart fans for the Apple users.
Hunter has brought smart home automation to the ceiling fans. They have a ceiling fan line that is first to boast integration with Apple’s HomeKit. The 3-fan line is referred to as the SimpleConnect. They’re the Symphony, Signal, and Apache. Mostly, they just differ on the style and appearance. The most basic of the three is the Symphony, shown in the picture above.
Wirelessly control the fan or make smart home automation in tandem with other HomeKit-enabled products. Symphony features pristine white blades, 2 9.8-Watt light bulbs, and a reversible motor so you can use the fan the whole year round, whether it’s summer or winter. These fans also work with any Android phone as well.
Why You Should Get It
If smart home automation is your thing and you love a sophisticated-looking fan to join in your network, you’ll never regret going for one of Hunter’s fan. The Symphony is the most affordable fan on the collection and is the only white one. It also only has two -position mounting systems: standard and angled.
Pros
- Wi-Fi and Apple HomeKit-enabled
- Powerful performance, but quiet operation
- Two-position mounting
- Reversible motor for bi-directional blade movement
Cons
- App problems on connectivity and crashes
3. Bond: Best for ceiling fans with a remote control
Point your fan remote control at the Bond and enjoy controlling the breeze from anywhere.
Remember when your sibling covered the IR sensor on your remote control so you couldn’t switch the channel? Well, this is exactly what the problem with remote controls. You have to put it within the line of sight for it to work. That’s not smart, is it?
So, for your remote-controlled ceiling fans, there’s finally a way to make it smart — through Bond remote control. Bond works with Wi-Fi and has the ability to rebroadcast both IR and RF signals from your remote control. In short, it enables you to control your fan, and the lighting that goes with it, with just your smartphone. You even can make it work with Alexa and other compatible smart home products like Nest, SmartThings, Honeywell, and more. With this, you can make your electric fan spin on its own every time the room temperature rises up to a certain point.
Why You Should Get It
If you’re tired of using the remote control and you want to include your traditional ceiling fan in your automated home system, the Bond is the simplest and quickest way to do so. It only works with ceiling fans with remote control, but if you have a pull chain type, you need to purchase an additional receiver to make it work.
Pros
- Controls your fan via a smartphone app
- Coexists with your old remote control
- Light and temperature control
- Controls up to 6 ceiling fans
Cons
- Setup is bit of a chore
4. Minka-Aire: Best to use with Alexa
Minka will turn on if you ask Alexa to do it for you.
The most amazing thing about Minka Aire is that it can be voice-controlled through Alexa. So you can go like,”Alexa please turn on the fan.” and Mika will start spinning, cooling you down. You just have to note that it needs a separate hub (the Bond hub) if you want to do this automation.
If you want to skip the automation, Minka will work well with the hand-held remote too. Control the fan speed and the light that come with it. You can even choose to make the brightness at full or go with down light dimming for a relaxing night.
Why You Should Get It
If you have already equipped your home with Alexa-based automation, Minka-Aire makes a great addition to your room. You will easily integrate it into the workflows that you already have. And if you want a fan that quietly works, this is what you should get. It will definitely not wake the baby should you hang it in the nursery.
Pros
- Can control both lights and fan
- No need to run wires on your wall
- Works with Amazon Alexa and Insteon Technology
- Fits inside most fan canopies
Cons
- Need to manually switch it if you want to run in reverse
5. Insteon Switch: Best for fan and light control
FanLinc lets you control both your fan and lights on your smartphone.
The most amazing thing about FanLinc other than controlling both light and blades is that it installs inside your existing fan. You just have to wire this controller in the fan and it fits in most ceiling fan canopies. Once installed, you can start dimming your lights and control the speed of your fan via smart app.
Easily incorporate it into your Insteon network and you can start controlling it on your Insteon controller, remote control, or even your smartphone.
Why You Should Get It
Want to control both your fan and its light fixture wirelessly? This Insteon FanLinc is a neat way to do that without all the wall wiring. You just have to be sure that you’re in for the installation.
Pros
- Can control both lights and fan
- No need to run wires on your wall
- Works with Amazon Alexa and Insteon Technology
- Fits inside most fan canopies
Cons
- Installation is a bit of a challenge to some users
6. GE: Best to smarten your switch-based fans
Replace your current fan switch with this and make your fan smart.
If your fan doesn’t have a remote control, you can just replace your fan’s switch with the GE Z-Wave Plus Switch to make it smart. This switch transforms your old ceiling fan into a fan that you can switch on or off wirelessly, anywhere you may be. The app also lets you control the fan’s speed on your phone or computer.
For advanced automation, you can connect it with your other smart home devices from SmartThings, Wink, Alexa, Honeywell, Pulse, Trane, and more. You can control it with your voice or trigger it to switch on depending on the temperature or when somebody enters the room. It offers the ultimate wiring flexibility too as you can use it by itself or with up to 4 add-on switches in a 3, 4, 5 or 6-way wiring configuration.
Why You Should Get It
For some serious smart home integration with your traditional switch-based fans, the GE switch is the perfect tool. It offers flexibility in the wiring and is compatible with a lot of other smart home products. You’ll truly enjoy the switch, especially if you’re fond of tinkering with stuff in your home. Note that it can only control the fans, and not the lights.
Pros
- Easily replaces standard in-wall switches
- Wireless control of your ceiling fan
- Has LED indicator for easy switch spotting in the dark
- Compatible with Z-Wave devices: Wink, Alexa, SmartThings, and more
Cons
- Tricky installation if you’re a newbie
We have been focusing too much on smart thermostats in finding ways to keep our energy usage low that we have remained clueless about the significant help that smart ceiling fans can introduce into our home cooling systems. It might seem that a smart ceiling fan is just a home splurge, but it’s not.
So, are you thinking of adding a smart ceiling fan into your home automation anytime soon? Do tell us on Twitter or just leave a comment below!
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