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I have a bedroom with a ceiling fan.

Right now, the wall switch only controls the light (on/off, no dimmer). The only way to change the speed of the fan is by the pull chain. So if you want to change the fan speed in the middle of the night, you either have to get lucky and find the chain in the dark, or turn on the light.

I bought a Legrand brand wall switch that has a 3-speed fan control built in. I wired it up according to the directions. But the switch still only controls the light and the 3-speed slider (very poorly) tries to act as a dimmer for the light.

How do I get the 3-speed switch to control the speed of the fan? I'm worried that there isn't the correct wiring going to the fan.

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  • Can you post photos of the insides of the boxes?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Jul 17, 2016 at 23:48
  • Sounds like you need another wire which may not be easy. What would be easy is a glow in the dark keychain fob as the chain weight for the fan speed control pullchain.
    – Tyson
    Commented Aug 18, 2016 at 1:03

3 Answers 3

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It's even worse than the above answers. There is no general standard for fan designs. Different fans do speed regulation different ways, and you must choose a remote speed control method which is compatible. This is a "consult with the factory" sort of situation; often cheaper fans are simply not made for that.

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By how you have explained it you will need an extra switch wire going to your new light switch/fan controller.wire the switch as normal and loop a wire from permanent active from switch to one terminal of the 3 speed fan contoller and the extra wire you need is the return to the fan motor which you connect to other terminal of 3 speed controller and connect other end to active wire of fan motor.if it's a built in controller it may only have one terminal as the active loop is already done internally when made in factory so only need to connect fan switch wire to terminal.without looking at the switch that is both options that will make your switch/fan controller work correctly

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You need to install something like this.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Legrand-Radiant-3-Speed-15-Amp-White-Indoor-Rocker-Fan-Control/1000050187

Set the fan to the highest speed with the chain and leave it there. Then use this switch to go between the three power levels.

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