Ceiling fan conundrum

[MushCreek]

I'll try to keep this as short as I can-
We have a finished room in our barn as a gathering place and guest cottage. I have a mini-split, which works OK, but the heat rises to the 22' ceiling. I put up a nice ceiling fan, hanging from one of the two beams that are about 15' apart. With the fan on 'low', it pulls the warm air back down. Fine. It's over the futon, which folds out to a bed. The problem is that it's a little breezy when it's cool and folks are trying to sleep. I just bought a matching fan (they look cool; sort of look like an old western windmill) and installed it on the other beam. Here's the problem: They both work off of the same remote. I'd like to turn the one over the futon off at night, and let the other one pull the warm air down. Unlike other fans and remote devices I have, there are no dip switches to customize them. You can't turn either one on or off without having the same effect on the other fan.

The only thing I can come up with is to put the fan over the futon on a wall switch as well as the remote, so I can shut it off independently. Grrrrr. I really would have preferred fans with chains instead of remotes, so you could adjust each one separately, but most fans today are remote. And of course, when the thing craps out...

On another note, the remote also turns my shop air filter on and off in the other room!

 

[Zeke]

Most people have the opposite problem, they want to control 2 fans with one remote.

Call the service number. There has to be a way to program the remotes.

No info here w/o makes and models. I mean how many fans are manufactured today and you want a solution with no ID of the product?

 

[cybrdyke]

electrical tape over the sensor.

 

[MushCreek]

Hampton Bay (Lowes). I think it's the Henderson model. I don't see how tape over the sensor would work, as you don't have to point the remote towards it. It even works one room away. Putting one fan on a switched circuit will help, but I still wouldn't have individual control of the speed, or the light. I looked at two other fans in our house, and both of them have dip switches in the remote. I didn't see any dip switches on these fans, or their remotes. Everything is pretty well sealed up along with the LED lights.

 

[Zeke]

I looked up programing the remote so the info is out there. If you really don't have dip switches (they can be buried under a battery) then it's done with the buttons, more than one at a time and powering off (removing batteries in the case of the remote). Since Hampton Bay is the HD house brand, you might have Harbor Breeze if bought from Lowes.

 

[MushCreek]

Sorry, you're right; it is Harbor Breeze. I've installed so many over the years, it's easy to get them confused. I would have thought that if it were programmable, the instruction book would have included that information. Silly me. I'll do a google search, although I'm not optimistic. I'm curious as to why the same remote turns on my Wen air filter in the other room.

 

[MushCreek]

Success! After googling around a while, I found a solution. Let's say both fans are programmed to remote 1. You disconnect the power to Fan 1. Turn off the breaker, then turn it back on. Using remote 2, you synch it with fan 2. (Fan 1 is still disconnected). Hook everything back up, and you're good to go. The key is to synch each fan separately. If they're both connected to power, they'll both key off of the one remote.

 

[Jinks]

Success! After googling around a while, I found a solution. Let's say both fans are programmed to remote 1. You disconnect the power to Fan 1. Turn off the breaker, then turn it back on. Using remote 2, you synch it with fan 2. (Fan 1 is still disconnected). Hook everything back up, and you're good to go. The key is to synch each fan separately. If they're both connected to power, they'll both key off of the one remote.

Well, you beat me to the answer..... I was about to respond with a similar problem & answer. I put a nice remote fan in our living room a while back. We really like it! In fact we liked it so much we decided to put one like it in our bedroom. Looked & worked great, but for about a month or two I'd come down stairs & think we'd left the living room fan on all night. Turned out both fans worked from either remote. Took a little searching, but I found that they are "learning" remotes/fans. Solution was the same as you described for one of the fans. Now they work independently........

 

[American Locomotive]

FYI: In the winter, people often just reverse the fan so it blows up to the ceiling. It will still get the heat up top down, but you won't feel a direct breeze.

 

[Zeke]

While doing my search for the OP I found that many of the fans don't reverse at all anymore ???

Also it appears some only reverse at the fan motor even if there is a remote.

 

[MushCreek]

I don't know if mine reverse or not. If it's on the motor, forget it. They're 12' off of the floor.

 

[mikedodge]

The newest fan I have reverses but the old one it was easily accessible, the new one is a switch on the fan itself. Which is no big deal since it's normal ceiling height.