Hey Siri, turn on the fan!

Well it’s been really hot here in SoCal and I decided to add some bedroom ceiling fans as they were on sale during Amazon Prime Day. I previously installed an office fan that came with a remote, but after 2 years the remote died and I’ve been try on and off for the last 4 years to fix it with no luck. So this time I went with a few basic models.

For the downstairs room (Toshi’s Room), I put a basic 42″ fan for $75. It’s a little noisy, but I wanted a flush ceiling mount in order to use the room for exercise not not have to worry about getting my hands chopped off during jumping jacks!

For the master bedroom, I went with a 54″ Hunter rigged for silent running. It was slightly more expensive ($120), but it had excellent build quality and the motor is so quiet even at the highest setting that all you here is the wind.

But the last thing I want to do when laying in bed, slipping in and out of dreamland, is to have to get up, fumble my way across the floor, reach up and pull the chain. And it will ALWAYS have to be mean, because my wife can’t reach the chain as we have nice high ceilings. So rather than spent and extra $100+ for a fancy fan with a remote, I decided to modify the 2-gang switch box with an Eve Smart Switch.

These switches are not cheep as they go between $30-$60. But the reason I like them so much is that they are very reliable and use capacitive touch rather than a traditional toggle or slider. Plus you can paint-blend them into the wall or even make then into a little hanging painting like you might see on a Japanese Byōbu (屏風) aka – ‘wind wall’. I’m not so adventurous (yet), but another big advantage is that they are smart and can work with the Amazon or Google Smart Home.

Better yet, I hooked it up to Home Kit with out the need of a Hub. All you need is a neutral wire to keep the current trickling into the device and Bluetooth (or Wifi) will take care of the rest.

I don’t have a light attached to the ceiling fan, so I use Eve to simply turn the fan on and off. What could be easier. After an hour installing the fan and putting in the new switch, I then setup my first Home Kit device. Piece of cake.

Now all I need to do is say to my Apple Watch is ‘hey Siri turn on the fan’ or reach over to my phone in the middle of the night and tap the screen to switch it off.