[catmom23]

OK, I just freaked out on my poor husband (a kill the messenger sort of thing),after he reported to me that, according to our electrician, our two new ceiling fans lights in the living room CANNOT be operated by wall switches... which means that we put in three switches in various convenient locations that do absolutely nothing, and that therefore, when I come in the house, I have to fumble around to find a remote control in order to turn the light on.

I find this very hard to believe.

I understand that the FANS don't work with a multi-speed wall switch, and that you have to use a remote control to change the fan speed -- but what I simply do not understand is how it could be possible that you are NOT supposed to have switches to turn the power to the light/fan on and off at the wall. I have two ceiling fans in my current apartment that function like that, and it is inconceivable to me that they would make one that didn't.

here is the situation in a nutshell:

current apartment: Liz walks into room, flips switch... light on ceiling fan turns on. if Liz decides light is too bright, she adjusts light with remote control. If Liz wants fan on as well, she turns it on with remote control.

new house (according to electrician): Liz walks into room in dark, trips over shoes left on floor, steps on a cat or two, bumps shin on end table, then finally locates remote control under couch where one of 5 cats has batted it, and then (and only then!) does Liz have the ability to turn the light on, using said remote. Liz is free to flip any of the three convenient switches to her heart's content, but doing so is to be considered only finger exercise, as they will effect no change in the light (because, per electrician having them do something will "fry" remotes).

Anyone have any thoughts on this one? :X:X:X:XI am so annoyed I want to leave work, rush home, grab the manuals for the apartment fans, drive to the new house, compare manuals with the new fan and then, hopefully, call electrician and freak out on him. (That's after I buy the new fixture he says I have to buy "right away", of course, because he screwed up and put too much on one breaker so I can't use a fluorescent fixture in one closet... but I digress...)

[tx_mom]

What brand of celing fan do you have?
We have a Hunter ceiling fan that we installed a few months ago that came with a remote for controlling the fan and light ( instead of pull chains) but it is also connected to a wall switch which turned the power to the fan on/off.
I didn't want to have to find the remote every time so we bought a Hunter brand light switch/fan control at Lowes that installed in the box where the switch was on the wall. This switch has 5 buttons: one for the light(on/off) and then four for the fan (low, med, high and off). We now keep the remote on the other side of the room so we can either use the remote or the wall switch (the wall control is wireless just like the remote and we set them both to the same code).
I know at Lowes they had the Hunter switches and the Lowes brand switches (for their brand I forget the name).
Also check your remote because our remote came with a wall bracket where we could install this bracket in the place of the regular wall switch and the remote would slip onto the bracket. This would make the remote act as the wall switch and be easy to find when you enter the room.
If your ceiling fan is really not connected to any switch I am sure you could still attach the bracket to the wall and attach the remote to the bracket on the wall.
HTH
Laura

[catmom23]

oh, Laura, I hadn't even thought about attaching the remote to the wall... you're brilliant... and where there are two fans (and thus, two remotes), it would even cover two of the three possible entrances to the room...also your mention of the WIRELESS wall switch/remote is interesting...

I'm still hoping I'm right, but if worse comes to worst...

they are Hampton Bay fans, from Home Depot... we shall see... I am trying to remain calm in the meantime

thanks for your reply!

[chabuchie]

Some of the ceiling fan brands just try to get extra money from you by charging for the wireless wall switch. Mine was that way. It came with the remote and the wall switch was an extra $20-30.

[GardenOfDarwin]

Liz, sorry to chuckle at your expense, but you do realize that you're hysterical, don't you? As to your problem...is there any possibility that your electrician is a moron? He's not, like your brother or anything is he? Sounds to me like he may have screwed up the wiring, bypassing the switching altogether and now he's trying to blame it on inanimate objects. If you ask me, that's pretty cheesy.

tx_mom's idea about the remote on the wall is a good one. Our 4 year old has a fan in his room, and the little techno-weenie got a remote for his 3rd birthday. We attached the bracket to the side of his bed, and he turns it on and off at will. Of course, he can also switch it using the lightswitch, but he can't reach it without a stool. :? Also, word to the wise...if you break one of those plastic things on the bracket that holds the remote in, a rubber band will do the trick. Not pretty, but 4 year olds don't care.

Susan

[catmom23]

hysterical, me?!?! :shock:

Glad to provide a chuckle. Your response actually got me chuckling as well, which is good, because I am like a caged animal here in my office, waiting to go home and bust out the owners' manuals!

After telling me about this and then hearing my response, my husbandvery calmlysaid "I don't think I want to talk to you anymore right now. Let's talk later on. Bye." He is a very wise man.

Interesting thought about the electician screwing up... It is more than a good possibility that he is a moron. He is not related to us, nor is/was he a friend (that would be theplumber, and that's a whole other nightmare)... He has actually been fabulously great up until a couple months ago, when he started sharing his opinion about pretty much everything we were doing, from my choice of energy-efficient lightbulbs ("I don't think those really work. I think they're a waste of money."), to a plethora of non-electically related issues that were absolutely none of his business (lots of "well, if it were me, I wouldn't have done it that way..." ).

Then he started pulling the old "I'll be there tomorrow" and not showing up... and "I've only got about a day's worth of work left," and appearing for about half an hour at a time every two weeks or so...

I suppose I am closer to the end of my rope with this whole project than I might have realized. We started clearing our land ourselves 2.5 years ago. The kit for the house arrived just over a year ago, and every night and every weekend since then has been consumed by building this house (which, as I've mentioned elsewhere, we have done entirely ourselves, aside from the plumbing and electical)... we are so close to being done, and everything has turned out so beautifully and so exactly like the dream house in my head that anything that doesn't match that picture freaks me out completely. I just want to live there, and I just want it to be as close to perfect as possible. And gosh darn it, I don't want three switches that mysteriously do nothing!!

Your son would love our new place... hubby has installed so many gadgets it's going to take me 6 mos. to learn how to operate our house!

thank you for listening, ladies... I love this site for that, and for many other things!

[catmom23]

arrgh! I just called hubby to ask him a question about something else, and he said blithely "I'm here with Bill <the electrician> and your lights are all set... don't worry about it."

So now I am happy about that, but mildly annoyed that hubby didn't call to tell me sooner! I suppose I deserved that, though, after earlier nastiness...

Phew. Thanks for the moral support in the meantime, gals... this house will get done eventually.

One of these days I'll post pix -- esp. of my Ikea kitchen, which I am IN LOVE with. I spend a fair amount of time just standing in there, swooning... It's gorgeous, esp. with all the appliances in now... so pretty....

[DesignDiva]

Sounds like your electrician is on his way to burnout. Does HE have a remote? Maybe someone flipped the switch and fried HIM?