We just bought two Harbor Breeze ceiling fans that come with a remote control kit. Our electrician seemed wary about installing fans w/remotes because he has seen a lot of problems with them (mostly related to minor power surges in the home). We're really not interested in having the remote control feature, anyway. Is there any way of installing the fans to work with the traditional wall switches instead of the remote? (The fans also have a light that operates on a dimmer with the remote control.)

Harbor Breeze Avian Fan #075849

Thanks!

Your electrician is smart.

If the fans have pullchains, you can install them without the remotes. If they do not have pullchains, where and how do the receivers wire in (or do they come preinstalled?) Also, if the remotes have a reverse button, you CANNOT wire the fans without them.

Thanks for your reply! I've taken a look at the manual and at the fan itself (not that I know exactly what I'm looking at!). Here's what I've found:

-no pullchains
-reverse lever is a manual switch, located on fan itself (not on remote)
-receiver is packaged with the fan, but is not pre-installed inside the fan
-receiver is to be inserted into the mounting/hanger bracket, above the fan
-wires coming from fan motor are: green (ground), black (fan), blue (light), white (common)
-the receiver has blue, white and black (to motor) and black and white (AC in)
-remote has off/low/med/high fan settings and an on/off/hold-to-dim button for the light
-the new fan will replace an older fan that is currently hardwired to switches (one for light on/off, one for fan on/off).
-since the required bulb is only 100w, we do not need a dimmer; on/off is fine. (If we have to have a dimmer switch, that is OK too)
-what type of switch would we need to operate the fan? (It has 3 speeds.)
-A warning label attached to the cords from the motor reads, "Do not install this fan with wall solid state speed control or wall light dimmer control. It will permanently damage the receiver of remote control and cause the fan function failure." (But what if we don't use the receiver/remote system?)
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So, do you think we can just bypass the receiver (i.e. not install it), and connect the wires from the motor to the appropriate wires in the ceiling (as long as the switches are correct)?

Thanks very much!
Ss

You can try. You would connect black to one of your ceiling hot wires (probably black), blue to the other (probably red), white to white, and green to ground.

Ceiling fan wiring - Ceiling Fans N More

Ok, we will try to convince our electrician to try this. (I think he's hesitant to do this because he doesn't want to be responsible if something goes wrong.)

--> What types of wall switches would be appropriate for the fan and light?

Thanks again!

Let's confirm the fans will work that way, before worrying about wall switches.

Ok, the electrician installed one of the fans yesterday and it seemed to work fine. He put the fan on a 3-way fan switch, and the light on a regular switch. It worked fine until we went to turn the light on this evening, and the (small 100-w halogen) bulb went out. (The fan still works.) I'm thinking this is not a good sign. We replaced the bulb and it is lit as of now.. .

Do you think this may have something to do with the wiring or with the fact that we did not use the remote system?

Thanks!

Naw, I think it's just that halogen bulbs are fickle.

I'll add, if you put it on a dimmer switch, it may last longer.

I have 4 of the Avian fans installed, none with the remote control. I'm using Lutron 3-speed fan controls on them without any issue.

The included halogen bulbs are seemingly cheap, they've died a bit too quickly for my tastes, but the replacements have lasted longer.

Be careful never to touch them with your hands, sometimes that can help bulb life.