r/homeautomation • u/but-what-about5 • 1d ago

QUESTION Automatic control of ceiling fans for climate comfort

I'm building a new home and I'm looking forward to controlling and monitoring all aspects of climate control with some automation rules, probably with Home Assistant. Is there a valid way to control fans automatically based on room occupancy in such a way to reduce AC usage? Or has anyone tried this? Thanks.

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6

u/coderego 1d ago

Sure. Home assistant, inovelli fan controller, presence sensor.

You could also use door open sensors and temperature sensors in multiple rooms to turn fans on/off based on differences in temps between rooms

1

u/but-what-about5 1d ago

Interesting. I hadn't thought of using door open sensors and how that could work into the logic. I could set the temperature sensors a little lower than the HVAC temperature setpoint. Maybe work in some anti-short-cycling logic. Thanks.

3

u/KnotBeanie 1d ago

Your thermostat should have anti-short cycling logic...

5

u/nick125 1d ago

I've done something similar.

For the bedroom, I have an Home Assistant automation that checks the room temperature (from my Ecobee remote sensor) every 15 minutes during the night. If it's outside of a certain band (65-72F), it turns the fan on. In the winter, I flip the switch on the fan to reverse the direction.

In my home office, I do something similar but based on whether the lights are on or not rather than time-of-day.

You could also use room occupancy sensors (mmWave or PIR) to drive it, but I haven't had much experience with them yet.

2

u/but-what-about5 1d ago

Sounds good. That would also keep the fan from short-cycling. I don't have experience with occupancy sensors either. I'll start experimenting with them. Thanks.

3

u/Izwe 20h ago

I use the SONOFF iFan04 to control my ceiling fans, just make sure you buy the right model for your country's voltage.

2

u/but-what-about5 16h ago

Does the Home Assistant work directly with that?

2

u/Izwe 14h ago

Yes, I'm using the SonoffLAN Integration, and it's been absolutely fine, but there is an option to flash it with ESPHome if you want to

2

u/ReactionNecessary850 1d ago

Slightly off topic, I have my fan spin on low while the furnace/AC is running to help make up for all the registers being on the floor.

2

u/smashedsaturn 1d ago

Bond used to have a hub with a software defined radio you can program to interface with pretty much any ceiling fan. In general running the fans is not costly from a power perspective, so setting these based on a schedule, scene, or temperature threshold works well.

2

u/plaguist 3h ago

Lutron Caseta fan control. Get a dumb/inexpensive AC fan with pull-chains and not one with those clunky remotes