Controls

Once you have decided on which ceiling fan to buy the next thing is to decide how you want to control it. Having to stand up and pull a cord every time you want to alter the speed or turn it on or off can be a pain. There are four ways to control a ceiling fan: Use a remote control, a wall control, a pull chain or the main light switch.

1. Main light switch – Wiring the fan into the live from the wall switch to the room light means that as soon as you turn the light on the fan will come on. This is fine but what about winter when you don’t want the fan on?

2. Pull chain – Most fans will come with a pull chain that is attached to the fan motor. This will also have the 3-speed control settings that will cycle through as you pull the chain repeatedly.

3. Wall control – This will enable you to separately control the fan speed from the wall and to turn the fan on and off from the wall. In addition you can control any light on the fan so long as you have an additional live wire (termed “switched live”) running to the ceiling fan. This may require a lot of extra work and cost depending on the construction of your walls and the location of the fan.

4. Remote control – Remote controls are easy to install as there are only two components: a receiver which sits inside the canopy wherein lies the hanging kit and the handheld remote control itself. On installation ensure that the small DIP switches on the receiver and controller are set to be the same. The power including the switched live now all pass through the reciever enabling control to be passed to the RF remote. The speed and light can be controlled from the remote.

For temperature control and timers use our FNK Advance Control. Full instructions for installing your receiver can be found on the relevant product pages should you mislay them. Also make sure you don’t use the original lighting pull cord as this could damage the receiver when pulled or can set the fan out of kilter limiting its speed. We normally recommend cutting the pull-chain short so that it is only ever used for resetting the fan control or if the remote is not working for any reason.

5. Controlling multiple fans with one control – This is simple to do by setting the DIP switches of all the receivers to be on the same setting or channel as the remote. You thus don’t need to buy multiple remotes only multiple receivers which we sell on their own.

6. DC ceiling fans – These can only ever be controlled by remotes due to the way the voltage works.